Lord,
This election season is over.
All that remains is for voters to cast their ballots.
Let wisdom guide them.
It is the end after a long season.
What has been done has been done;
What has not been done;
has not been done;
Let it be.
Receive all our fears and anxieties about the future
into your transforming presence.
Give us rest to prepare for a new day
New joys, new challenges, new possibilities.
In your name we pray. Amen.
From UCC.org
Election Day of the 18th and early 19th century was very different than it is today. In Colonial New England, Election Day was a holiday, and there would be grand pageantry in cities and towns all across the colony. The day would begin with cannon fire and military exercises by the local militia, and then the politicians would process through the streets to the church. Once gathered in the church a service would be held and a sermon preached.
Standing in the center of most colonial towns stood the meeting house that on Sunday functioned as a gathering spot for the religious community but also served as a gathering place for community meetings and other important events in the life of the colony. The white clapboard building stood in the center of the town, with its tall spire, to remind the inhabitants of the essential nature of religion in the community.
It was the Calvinist belief that all human activity fell under the jurisdiction of God’s word so gathering at the church on special occasions such as anniversaries, days of thanksgiving, days of fast, as well as on Election Day would not have been unusual. The sermon was essential to people’s lives and was the central focus of the Congregational worship service. It is estimated that the average person would have listened to 7,000 sermons in their lifetime that would amount to about 15,000 hours.
The sermon in Colonial New England was not only preached on Sunday but also on special days such as anniversaries, days of thanksgiving, fast days, and of course election day. Preachers would not have used the pulpit on Sunday for political purposes, but that was certainly different on Election Day. In true Calvinist thought, New England Congregationalist would have preached sermons to inform and convince while their Church of England Counterparts would have preached sermons that would please and inspire.
The typical Election Day sermon would follow a set pattern and focus on two important elements.
Those listening would be reminded of the duty to pray for and to submit to the authority of those chosen to govern us so that, as Paul wrote to Timothy, “so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” (1 Timothy 2:2.)
In the end it is important to remember that these sermons were not about endorsing one candidate over another, although I am sure that happened, but these sermons were preached in the presence of the government as a reminder to them, and to the governed, about their responsibilities as citizens and to act for the betterment of all of the society and by doing so we would all be able to live godly lives. The sermon was designed to remind the citizen of the importance of their vote and that their responsibility should not be taken lightly something we all need to be reminded.
Pastor Max Lucado has a prediction for what will happen the day after the election in the United States.
We are really ready for this presidential election to be over. We’re ready for an end to the rancor and tackiness. Voters on both sides feel frustrated, even embarrassed by it all. There is a visceral fear, an angst about the result. What if so and so wins? When we wake up to November 9, post-election, when the confetti is swept away and the election is finally over, what will we see?
I have a prediction. I know exactly what November 9 will bring. Another day of God’s perfect sovereignty. He will still be in charge. His throne will still be occupied. He will still manage the affairs of the world. Never before has His providence depended on a king, president, or ruler. And it won’t on November 9, 2016. “The LORD can control a king’s mind as he controls a river; he can direct it as he pleases” (Proverbs 21:1 NCV).
On one occasion the Lord turned the heart of the King of Assyria so that he aided them in the construction of the Temple. On another occasion, he stirred the heart of Cyrus to release the Jews to return to Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar was considered to be the mightiest king of his generation. But God humbled and put him in “detention” for seven years. “The kingdom is the Lord’s, and He rules over the nations” (Psalms 22:28).
Understanding God’s sovereignty over the nations opens the door to peace. When we realize that God influences the hearts of all rulers, we can then choose to pray for them rather than fret about them. Rather than wring our hands we bend our knees, we select prayer over despair.
Read the Rest Here
October 31st saw the 499th anniversary of the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg church in Germany and, as some would say, lit the fuse that started the Reformation. I would argue that the Reformation began sometime before this and that Luther just added fuel to the fire so to speak. It is always difficult to date these things in history. Events such as the Reformation do not usually have hard and fast start and end dates but yet a long line of events strung together.
Phyllis Tickle in her book The Great Emergence, writes about the 500 year Rummage Sale of the Church. Tickle points out that since the legalization of the Church by Constantine every 500 years the church shifts. It is not that the old gets thrown out or is no longer valid it just loses its place of primacy in the life of the people. Tickle suggests that from Constantine in the late 4th century, the Great Schism of the 11th century, the Reformation in the 16th century, and now the Postmodern era in the 21st century this rummage sale has been on going.
As Luther’s Reformation comes to its 500th year (in 2017) the question is are we starting a new Rummage Sale or has it already begun?
Josh Daffern, on his blog New Wineskins, proposes another 95 Theses for the next 500 years. I do not agree with all of them, just as I believe not all of Luther’s were agree with, but it is appoint of discussion. What will the Church look like in another 10 years? Are we, as Church, prepared for what is coming? We are already into this shift and how the Church reacts now will determine her future.
Check out the list and see what you think.
Here is a question, are we more interested in large communities or healthy communities? This is an important question for those of us in leadership in the church to ask ourselves. We can have both but if we build a large church before we care for the health of the present community, we will only amplify the problems with larger numbers.
On his blog Pivot, Karl Vaters asks this question and provides some answers. He writes after meeting with about 60 church leaders at a conference where the participants developed a list of the Characteristics of a Healthy Small Church. The list is not complete by any means but it is a good start and Karl did not just leave it with the list he also includes six lessons about the health of a church. I will list the six here but you should take the time to read and meditate on the article.
Each one of these lessons could be a post all on its own but it will take some time to unpack them.
Pride is one of those things that can be a positive and a negative it is however in inwardly directed emotion. If we view this from, the negative meaning of the emotion pride refers to a foolishly and irrationally corrupt sense of one’s personal value, status, or accomplishments this is often used with hubris. But if we look at pride from the other side, the positive side, pride refers to humble, and content sense of achievement towards one’s or another’s choices and actions and comes from a sense of praise, independent self-reflection, and a fulfilled feeling of belonging.
Pride can be viewed as a corrupt vice or a proper virtue. It is like most everything, what is the result of the pride, what is the goal? We can be filled with pride at our accomplishments, but if we boast about them to bring another down, then we have quickly gone from virtue to vice. And that is what we see on the Gospel passage from Luke today.
First, a little background to set the stage. The law required three daily prayer times, 9 am 12 noon and 3 pm. It was important that the prayer is held in the Temple. Now one could pray where ever they were at those particular times, but there was a better chance of your prayer being heard by God if you were standing in the Temple. It was at one of these times that we find the two men in the Temple praying.
First, we have the Pharisee. As we know Pharisees were, and are, distinguished by strict observance of the traditional and written law, and commonly held to have pretensions to superior sanctity. Now he did not go to pray to God; he prayed with himself. True prayer is always offered to God and God alone. We may ask someone to pray for us, but the prayer we offer, or a prayer that is offered for us by another, is always directed towards God. What the Pharisee was doing here was giving himself a testimonial before God.
The law also prescribed only one obligatory fast, the one on the Day of Attornment. But those who wished to gain special favor fasted on other days. In the Orthodox Tradition that I came from before coming here, fasting was a large part of the religious and spiritual practice of the people. Orthodox Christians fast from all meat and dairy products on Wednesday and Fridays as well as during the preparation periods of Advent and Lent. If one was to count the actual fast days, there were far more than non-fast days. I used to sit with people and discuss the fast; the first thing was that most were guilt ridden because they did not adhere to the fast as best as they should. Okay, this is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a spiritual practice and one that, well, needs to be practiced won’t be perfect from the start. But the second most common discussion was around the hypocritical nature of the fast. The people who claimed to be the best at fasting, wait the pride thing again, were often the most hypocritical. The second definition of Pharisee if hypocrite, and these were the ones that Jesus was speaking the most harshly too when he was talking to the religious leaders of his day.
Fasting, by its very nature, is supposed to change a person spiritually. The ancients believed that if we could control what we put in our mouths, we would be able to control what came out of our mouths. It’s not that the food was unclean but what came out of our mouths that are often unclean.
But the Pharisees often take the fasting a bit further; they would paint their faces white and wear disheveled clothes and would show great piety to those who would see them. This was not done out of some form of penitence; this was done to draw attention to themselves a “look at me and how pious I am” sort of thing. Not only did they fast more they would tithe more than required.
Scripture demands that we give 10% of what we have to God, that’s pretax by the way, we render to God before we render to Caesar. The Pharisees would give all they had and make a great show of it so others would be able to see how great they were. The Pharisee did not go to pray; he went to inform God how good he was.
Then there is the tax collector. Keep in mind that tax collectors were the most despised in society. They worked for the Romans, and so they were considered traitors by their fellow Jews. They also took more than the tax allowed. They would charge more and keep the difference for themselves.
He came to the Temple, and stood afar off, in the corner maybe, and would not even lift his eyes to God. Notice the words he spoke in his prayer, “O God be merciful to me – the sinner.” In his mind, he was not just a sinner, but the sinner, the chief sinner if you will. “And,” Jesus said, “It was that heart-broken, self-despising, prayer which won him acceptance before God.” What we see here are two very different people.
This parable is a parable about prayer, and it teaches us a few things to keep in mind about prayer and how we should pray.
No one who is proud can pray. The gate of heaven is so low that none can enter except upon our knees. Now this can mean physical or spiritual; I tend more towards the spiritual here. We should be humble in the presence of the King when we pray. Keep in mind we are addressing God, the creator of everything and the author of life; we are not speaking with someone down the street. We should have a certain familiarity with God, but there also needs to be a sense of awe and wonder. When we are in the presence, we humble ourselves before it.
No one who despises others, humanity, their neighbor, can pray. Now you did not think I was going to preach and not mention love your neighbor did you? We are all in this together, and we need to be mindful of one another. We need to pray for one another as well as we pray for ourselves. The Jewish ritual law required before you could make your sacrifice, to go and make peace with all you have harmed and who harmed you, then come and make your sacrifice. The law stated that if you did not do this, your sacrifice would not be acceptable to God. We cannot pray with hatred in our hearts.
True prayer comes from setting our lives beside the life of God. There is no doubt that what the Pharisee said was true. He did fast; he did give his tithes; he was not as others are; he was less like the tax collector. But the question is not, “Am I as good as my fellow-man?” The question is, “Am I as good as God?” We are called to follow Jesus not follow other Christians. We should not compare ourselves to other human beings for they are as flawed as we are, the marker of our Christian journey should be are we following Jesus?
I have mentioned this before. Years ago those little bracelets with the “WWJD” written on them were all the rage. The question should not be “what would Jesus do?” for we are not Jesus, the real issue is “What would Jesus have us do?” Jesus left us an example in word and deed, and that is what we should be asking, how does this apply to my life in my situation.
The sin of pride is comparing ourselves to others rather than simply laying our lives at the feet of God and asking for forgiveness. All of us need forgiveness, and I hope we have the knowledge that if we ask for it, God will give it. On the day of His crucifixion, Jesus was hung between two thieves. One of them asked him for forgiveness and Jesus granted it and told him “today, you will be with me in paradise.” There was no other requirement than for him to ask for forgiveness. Jesus did not require him to go to the altar and weep for his sins; he did not require him to sing three verses of Just as I am or anything like that. The thief asked for forgiveness and Jesus granted it. He did this because as the famous verse for the Gospel of John says, “God so loved the world that he sent his Son, so that all who believe may have eternal life.”
Know this; God loves you each and every one of you. Know this, if you ask God to forgive you, God will forgive you, in fact, he already has. There are not many things in this life that I am certain of But I am certain of the fact that God loves each and every one of us right here and right now.
The 19th Chapter of the Gospel of Luke contains the story of Zacchaeus and is a story that points out to us that the grace of God can accomplish what humanity can never hope to achieve.
As with all of Scripture, this passage contains a lot of symbolism that applies to our lives each and every day. The writer of the Gospel points out that Zacchaeus what short of stature and that for him to see Jesus as he passed by he had to climb a tree that was on the side of the road.
The shortness of the stature of Zacchaeus is related to the depth of his faith and virtue. Zacchaeus is not only a tax collector, but he is the chief tax collector and not the most honest man. Tax collectors were notorious for taking more than the tax and keeping the difference for themselves. Although he is a Jew he cheated his fellow Jews and worked for the Roman Authorities this would not have placed Zacchaeus high on anyone’s list of virtuous people.
But something inside of his started to change and when he heard Jesus was coming he ran out to see him. There was a stirring inside of him that told him his life was not heading in the right direction and he needed to make a change and get his life on track. This would not be easy for him to do since truly for this to happen he was going to have to leave his job.
So he rushes out into the street and finds that the crowd has already assembled and he cannot see from where he is standing. I imagine a group on the side of the road like there would be for a parade going by and the poor, short, Zacchaeus is in the back. He spots a tree and climbs to the top so he can see over the crowd. Zacchaeus had to throw off his attachment to earthly things, and in this case, the earth itself, to see God. Sometimes the call of the material world is far stronger than that of the heavenly and our desire for material possessions, comfort, and power keep us from seeing God and hearing God’s voice in our lives. It’s not that these things in and of themselves are bad, it is what we do with them and they prevent us from doing that becomes the problem.
As Jesus passes by he sees Zacchaeus in the tree, calls him down, and then does the most extraordinary thing for someone in Jesus line of work would do, he tells Zacchaeus that he will have dinner with him tonight. For a Rabbi such as Jesus to enter the home of a tax collector was just simply not done. But Jesus was not an Orthodox Rabbi, and so off he went.
Notice Jesus did not condemn Zacchaeus; he did not even tell him that he had to get his life back on track. He was nonjudgmental and only said, I’m coming to your house tonight. Jesus treated Zacchaeus as a human being, and Jesus treated him with love and understanding. Who knows why Zacchaeus ended up in the profession he was in? Perhaps he fell on hard times, and this was his only way out. None of this mattered to Jesus all he saw was a man that was willing to change and he helped him do that.
Because of this loving witness Zacchaeus was converted and told Jesus that he was giving half of his goods to the poor and that if he had wronged anyone he was going to make it right, but not just right fourfold rightness was what he was going to do. Half of what he had, not everything, we are not called to impoverish our families, but we are called to help.
How different this story would have been if Jesus, when seeing Zacchaeus in the tree, stopped and pointed at him and called him a sinner. Yelled that he was going to hell for his choices in life and just walked past in righteous indignation. Tradition tells us that Zacchaeus, who was surnamed Matthias, is the one selected to replace Judas Iscariot after he betrayed Jesus. Tradition also says that Zacchaeus preached the Gospel in what is not the Republic of Georgia and was stoned to death for doing so.
This story teaches us that God does not call the equipped he equips the called and that the Grace of God can do far more than we humans can ever think of doing. Because Jesus showed love and understanding to Zacchaeus, he went on to be one the greatest evangelists in Church history. As you often hear me say, and as we have seen in this passage, love is the answer.
One of the most important, yet often overlooked, aspects of pastoral ministry is self-care. As ministers, we need to take care of ourselves, so we are in the right frame of mind, the right place in our spirituality, and we are physically able to help people. Self-care is one of the tools that is vital to pastoral ministry, and I only wish it was given more time if any, at seminaries as minister candidates prepare for service.
As a general rule, ministers are givers, and we give until we cannot give any more and that usually leads to burn out. What many congregations do not understand is the stress that is placed on ministers especially in churches with shrinking number and a population that is aging. On top of that, we face problems with our health or the health of family members that only adds to the stress. Our parishioners are also under stress from their lives, and that lands at our feet as well, and we continue the cycle of caring for others and not caring for ourselves.
I am a fire chaplain and also work in disaster recovery. This is an aspect of ministry I never thought I would be involved in but one I am glad I did say yes too. It has added a dimension to ministry that most ministers never get to see. Sure I saw a lot of things I wish I never saw and been to places that have seen better days, but helping someone after a disaster, or being with that firefighter outside a burning building is a wonderful ministry. But all of this requires training and retraining.
I was recently involved in a one day class to refresh and renew my skills in the delivery of Critical Incident Stress Management. Without going into all the details, CISM is a process that focuses on the incident at hand, deals with the aftermath of that incident, from a psychological perspective, and allows the participants to return to their daily routine more quickly with less likelihood of experiencing PTSD. There is a one on one and a team approach to the delivery of CISM, and it requires a honing of the necessary skills from time to time. One aspect of CISM is the self-care of the team.
And often overlook aspect of psychological trauma work is the vicarious victimization this is when people are traumatized by an event by being involved from a distance with through a family member or event watching the events over and over again on television. News saturation can cause trauma in an indirect way even hearing about an event can traumatize someone and this why self-care of the CISM tram is of vital importance.
Sitting in class, I called to mind all of the times that Jesus withdrew to a secluded place to pray. This usually happened after a rather stressful moment in his life. After healing many people or teaching for an extended period, he would withdraw from the others and go and pray. He would come back to them refreshed and ready to face another day. Jesus had to do this, and he is the Son of God, so a mere mortal like me needs to do this!
What this withdrawal does is refocus us or bring us back to our center. When an event is unfolding there really is no time to process fully what is going on and what has happened. We are in the thick of it and need to focus all of our attention on the task at hand. We are on auto-pilot, and our training takes over at this point. But what happens when we switch the auto-pilot off? This is when withdrawal becomes necessary.
Self-care involves knowing our limitations and knowing our triggers. None of us like to admit that we have limitations especially those of us involved in ministry. We want just to keep going, but if we do, and take no time for refreshment, we will burn out and then we are of no use to anyone. Learning how to say no is critical in the sort of work ministers are involved. But knowing our triggers, the things that might set us off, is also important.
I am not saying that we all need to pray more, although that is not a bad thing, that may not be your thing. Prayer works for me and that is great you need to find what works for you. What is it that relaxes you and centers you, know what that is and then do it.
We all need time to process the things that we experience and that time is different for each person. Some can bounce right back while others need a little more time, but to take time say a day every few months, to withdraw for a few hours will go a long way in helping to keep us on track.
There has been a lot of talk during this presidential election cycle about Christian values. Candidates have talked about their faith more in this election than in any other I can remember. Religious leaders speak of the Christian values, and that is the only basis we should use when selecting a candidate to high office. So what are these Christian values that they speak of?
Jesus summed up for his followers what Christian values look like in the twenty-fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew:
“for I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger, and you welcomed me, I was naked, and you gave me clothing, I was sick, and you took care of me, I was in prison, and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'”
So in summary Christian values are:
Feeding the hungry
Providing water for the thirsty
Clothing the naked
Welcoming the stranger
Visiting those in prison
And why do we do this? Because whatever we do to them, feed or not feed, give water or not give water, clothe or not clothe, welcome or not welcome, visit or not visit, we do to Jesus Himself. Oh and notice it makes no mention of the worthiness of the person that requires help.
Of all of the things that I learned during my seminary education that has stuck with me is the Eastern Orthodox sense of being responsible for those God placed in your care. We were taught that on the day of judgement the priest would be held accountable not only for his own sins but for all of the advice, good and bad, that was given to those entrusted to him. He would be held accountable for those whom he helped bring to the kingdom and those whom he helped out of the kingdom. I recall this teaching daily in my pastoral work and still, to some extent, believe it to be true.
Religion has played a very large role in the US Presidential election, in fact religion has been a major factor in this election between one candidate claiming to be “anointed by God” to another whose actions are being written off because they have now had a “conversion” experience. As religious leaders we have a powerful pulpit from which to speak and are willing to compromise our faith, attack people who have been attacked, write off sexual abuse and a life long history of racism and misogyny for the promise of Supreme Court Judges? We are selling our faith for 30 pieces of silver and the people God has entrusted to our care deserve much better than this.
So here is a little warning to those of us doing the work of God.
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the sanctuary is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is bound by the oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the sanctuary that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘Whoever swears by the altar is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is on the altar is bound by the oath.’ How blind you are! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it; and whoever swears by the sanctuary, swears by it and by the one who dwells in it; and whoever swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by the one who is seated upon it.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your ancestors. You snakes, you brood of vipers! How can you escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets, sages, and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town, so that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come upon this generation. Matthew 23