The Less-Inhibited Pastor (It's not what you may think!)

I feel like the soldier who has just made his first kill. It took me hours to calm down the shakes on Sunday and Tuesday evening's meeting with our Administrative Council (is it just me or is that name absurdly formal and stiff?) got way out of hand as I found my restraint had taken a vacation thus allowing my passion to run a bit more free than I find comfortable.
The occasion was my general announcement that I had requested consideration for reappointment to another church. I told my PPRC on Sunday... and it was like I had sprayed acid around the room. Repeating the announcement to Ad Council was not, on the whole, much easier. And after I said that I didn't want to get too far into "why", I burrowed down rather deeply into "why" (go figure).

Emotion is a strange thing when it mixes with deep conviction and intense passion. It provides the power to express that conviction and passion while it simultaneously removes the safeties and makes disaster possible. On a continuum between constructive elegance and unmitigated disaster, my passionate and emotional expression was somewhere around the midpoint. I said things (and more than once) that I have kept restrained for a long, long time. While liberating, I didn't get into ministry to throttle people. Yet my concern for my charge's fractured community and its corrosive conflict needed to be voiced. Maybe I should have expressed my concerns a long time ago. It's hard to know what to do sometimes, and my Bible doesn't have an index listing every concern.
Chalk it up to another day learning how to be a pastor ... learning how to be a disciple of Christ ... learning how to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God, with its counter-cultural reality. Where else could I possibly be thoroughly frustrated with someone one moment yet find forgiveness and love enough to constructively move forward together the next? In the world I used to inhabit (so long ago, now) that would have been impossible. I would have needed to hold a grudge. My honor would have demanded satisfaction. But now that my honor is in Christ, who has taken up the guilt and shame of us all in order to render them impotent, I forgive more easily - if not cheaply.
Even those who have violated my trust and hurt me are more precious to me than makes rational sense.

Maybe ... just maybe ... I am finally beginning to understand Christ crucified.

Violated But Not Vindictive

Another first for my first appointment as a pastor in the UMC: we been robbed! More precisely, we are the victims of larceny, specifically my wife's bicycle, my golf clubs, and some clothes my father-in-law donated to our church's rummage sale... all taken from the garage.

How do I feel (you might ask)? Losing the bike is a little like losing a limb. Losing my golf clubs is really annoying. Losing the clothes my father-in-law donated is ... well ... okay, I suppose. We were giving them away to anyone who needed them anyway. Losing the bag the golf clubs were in ... YES! YE-HAW! PRAISE THE LORD! (Ugliest golf bag I've ever owned)

Do I feel violated that someone would so callously help themselves to our possessions? Only a little.

So, why don't I want to string up the rustlers by their *@&!@# and hang 'em high for their despicable misdeeds? Two reasons, neither which will resonate much in a hyper-individualistic, consumption-based, ownership culture:

Reason 1: This is the most difficult one to get across. None of the stuff that was stolen was ours to begin with (no, this doesn't mean that I stole the stuff). It all belongs to God, who had lent it to us to steward and enjoy (even the ugly golf bag) for a while. Our possessions are like our money in that none of it is really ours and to assume that it is, hard earned, investment gained, or ill-gotten, is to create idols out of ourselves. And after all, if we don't bind up our worth in our earthly assets then their loss can't really harm us.

Reason 2: I expect everyone does something immoral every so often because we are corrupt with sin. We live in a broken world and bad things happen in broken worlds. Does this relieve the thief (or thieves) of their guilt and responsibility? Of course not. The person or persons who not only violated our garage (as well as our peace of mind) also violated the eighth commandment of the Decalogue (“keep yer mitts of other folks' stuff”) as well as civil law. I should be disappointed indeed if the offender(s) was caught got away without experiencing the consequences. Yet, knowing that the offender(s) is a prisoner of sin, I have no need to see his (their) hands cut off to satisfy justice.

And where do we go from here? Forgiveness? Eventually. A sermon illustration? Very likely. Locking the garage doors? Certainly. More importantly, I shall use this incident to reflect on the healing our world still needs and try to help as much as I can.

Just Wear the Helmet Already!

It's cycling season, which means it's that time of the year when all the candidates for traumatic brain injury dust off their bicycles and hit the streets, bike paths, and trails without helmets. I suppose the same folk would drive without seat belts if the laws allowed for it.
Most disturbing is when I see a family, kids in helmets, parents without... And what will their kids learn from that example?!? Indeed, we do pass our sins on from generation to generation!

Of course, wearing a bike helmet is such a bother. It can be uncomfortable if not sized or worn correctly. It may not look too cool. It's a fuss. It messes up the hair...
...But then having a neurosurgeon shave one's head so he can open up the skull to relieve bleeding around the brain can mess up the hair too!

Bottom line: traumatic brain injuries are a real drag and they are very preventable.
Okay... if that isn't convincing enough, try this:
Let's say a 170 lb bicycle rider is riding at about 10 mph and hits something with his or her head (tree, car, ground, anything not soft). Doing the math, the impact on the head is 798 lbs, or something like the weight of the world's largest Sumo wrestler falling on one's noggin. Increase the speed to 15 mph and the force of impact jumps to 1197 lbs.
If the skull doesn't crack or crush the sloshing about that the brain does in an impact of that size will almost surely break about a billion of the capillaries on its surface causing bleeding. Since the blood can't go anywhere it will pool in one side of the head, squeezing the brain toward the other. At this point very bad things begin to happen.
Okay, maybe not so bad if one doesn't object to incredibly painful headaches, dizziness, nausea, brain damage leading to a life with the intelligence and motor skills of a cabbage, etc.

Just wear a helmet if you are going to ride a bike. It's not expensive, often comes in lots of nifty designs, and will protect that lovely head that God gave you.
Be safe and enjoy the ride!

Welcome Back!

Oh... Thank you. Glad to be back. It has been a long time hasn't it. And a lot has happened since then:

• finished seminary
• been pastoring a church in Romulus, MI
• have preached something near 140 sermons
• discovered that a dish called "City Chicken" has no chicken in it nor does it taste like chicken
• discovered I like mountain biking
• have learned oodles and oodles about the need for and power of the hope that comes from Christ's resurrection ... hope that empowers a beaten down and wounded people to be bearers of the love of God in ways I am only just learning to appreciate

Whoa! Look at the time ... Off to lunch.
I'll be back when I have something witty, pithy, profound, or even mildly entertaining to say.

Christians ARE Crazy

Ripped from the headlines –

Further Proof that Christians are Crazy!

I was right! Years ago, when I was a savvy sixteen year old with an IQ somewhere around 1000 (and not hereditary - my parents at that time had IQs of 12 and 13, respectively), I tried to tell everyone that Christianity was ridiculous and that to believe in some unseen God who raised people from the dead was a clear sign of lunacy. If Paul could claim to have been a “Jew among Jews” then I was an “atheist among atheists”.

While I was clearly in error about God’s existence and the notion of resurrection, I was spot-on about the insanity of believers!

By now, I suspect that all of Christendom is aware of the harrowing story of Abdul Rahman, who, until yesterday, was under threat of execution in Afghanistan for having committed the offense of “rejecting Islam”... by way of conversion to Christianity. An aid worker who had served refugee countrymen in Pakistan driven there by violence in Afghanistan, Rahman told an Italian newspaper, “I read the Bible and it opened my heart and mind”. He added, “I have done nothing to repent, I respect Afghan law as I respect Islam. But I chose to become a Christian, for myself, for my soul. It is not an offence.” Furthermore, he said that he did not want to die, “but if God decides, I am ready to confront my choices, all the way”.

He may have saved himself the trouble if he would have kept a lower profile. He didn’t and the you-know-what hit the fan when he was noticed not praying with other Muslims and reading a Bible. His admission of having become a Christian also irritated his neighbors, who, seeking to protect God’s honor, insisted Rahman have his neck stretched.

I may be going out on a limb here, but I think they overreacted. As far as I can tell, God doesn’t need our help protecting his honor.

For a while, things looked bleak for our Afghan brother... Until they decided that he’s as crazy as a bedbug. Rahman’s family petitioned the Afghan Supreme Court to dismiss his case because he suffered from mental illness. The judge in the case expressed considerable doubt that he was fit to stand trial and that Rahman seemed “disturbed” (facing a lynching ... who wouldn’t be “disturbed”). Family, judge, and prosecutors also attest to his having heard voices in his head.

For diplomatic and humanitarian reasons, all of these folk had been frantically searching for a way to let Rahman off without losing his head, and it appears that they settled on an interesting ploy. Indeed, to convert to Christianity is just nuts. To do so proves one’s inability to function rationally. He had become foolishness to others.

If Abdul Rahman does in fact suffer from schizophrenia or some other mental illness, then he has my heartfelt sympathy and prayers for his healing. However, his statements about his faith do not sound deranged to me...

...but then I am a crazy, lunatic Christian too!

Let Them Do the Right Thing Already!

To all protesters besieging Wal-Mart, Target, and their capitalistic, free-market, consumeristic brethren:

Please leave them alone! - They are doing the RIGHT thing!

Yes - by suppressing, banning, and eschewing "Christmas" from their premises, either by neutral "holiday" advertising and store displays or the purging of Santas, these businesses are, through their deeds, conveying a more potent message about Christmas than many of our churches. Indeed, without knowing it, they are doing great work to spread Scriptural holiness throughout the land.

While we, in our churches, hang our greens, argue over when it's okay to sing Christmas carols (isn't it liturgically improper during Advent), display charming and historically imaginative live nativities, sing lessons and carols (again), and generally strive to present a "Christmas" that is equal parts Charles Dickens, Norman Rockwell, and medieval mystery play, ...
... the "heathen" politically-correct retailers are acting to decouple our Holy Lord Jesus' humble birth from a gaudy and idolatrous possession-centered consumer culture. For all the angst over Christmas consumerism we good religious folk experience, we seem generally incapable of meaningfully dealing with our concerns while the powers and principalities of consumer culture are actually doing something to bring about positive change. While we Christians stress out arranging our holiday parties, doing our decorating (which often involves the Faustian decision of killing a living tree or putting up one made of irreplaceable petroleum products), feeling bad because we are once again late sending card, and buying all the right stuff for everyone in our family, the profit-worshiping minions of evil are implicitly doing far more to honor the God Incarnate who came not to increase investment returns on Wall Street but to proclaim the good news to the poor, liberty to the captives and oppressed, and recovery of sight to the blind. By inviting "Christ" out of their dens of iniquity, retailers are making the separation of sacred and profane that we good Christians seem too often unwilling to recognize.

The Bethlehem stable, bereft of lights, tinsel, Santa, elves, reindeer, and all manner of product placements was far more beautiful and sublime than all the trappings church and culture have over the centuries layered onto the event of our Lord's Incarnation. Unlike the mad rush of last-minute frenzy we are all too familiar with every year, time and space stopped - if for only just a moment - when everything in all Creation changed on that otherwise mundane night two millennia ago when God came to be amongst us.

If we are going to recreate a special moment every year, that should be the one.

- May you and those you love have a blessed Christmas filled with shalom -

Ingrates Я Us

Like so many other times that I have “awakened” to see the world as it really is, rather than as a construct of our collective consumer-driven fantasy, the Thanksgiving “event” that we rehearse each year now appears to me as a grand non-sequitor. Like other holidays, this one has been reduced to an obligation to visit family (that we should probably be seeing more frequently anyway), a rich-food binge that we give ourselves carte-blanche to consume, and an excuse to lay about the house doing nothing very useful. While I endorse these activities (all, including visiting family, in moderation of course), and have become a master of the latter two, it does strike me that we “do” Thanksgiving in almost the same way we “do” Christmas and Easter (and Memorial Day, Labor Day, and July 4^th). These have become functionally interchangeable feast days for many of us in America.

All platitudes about “The Reason for the Season” aside, the implications of having a series of holidays that look they were all hatched from the same egg is a bit troubling, particularly given what these events intend to celebrate. Since it’s so easy to tear apart our cultural abuse of Christmas and Easter, I’ll leave those alone (for now). Thanksgiving, though, is a bit more difficult to sort out.

It seems natural to rejoice in plenty and prosperity by ... well ... indulging in it and enjoying the fruits of our good fortune. Indeed, it seems hypocritical, or at least inconsistent, to enjoy something and eschew it at the same time. But I suspect we have crossed a line somewhere and wallow in our prosperity rather than sincerely celebrate it in a way that honors its source. Fed ‘n’ happy Christians lolling in front of billboard-sized flat-panel TVs shouting epithets at the enemy football team (if a Lion’s fan like me, at my own team) or at the blind-as-a-bat referees, are obviously remiss if that is the extent to which the God, the Creator and Sustainer of all good things, is shown gratitude. Yet even secular folk, who know how to give good things, are just as remiss when they likewise treat prosperity as an entitlement, enjoying its benefits without feeling sincere thankfulness for them.

Is being materially blessed a soul-killer? Are we trapped by the paradox that we are given a world full of good things yet we corrupt ourselves by enjoying them? While not a “prosperity gospel” guy, I don’t think so. For one thing, it seems ungracious and a bit arrogant to reject what God has so richly given, a bit like the eccentric aunt who opens your Christmas present and, instead of returning a hearty “thank you!”, exclaims “Oh No! I can’t take this!”. For another, enjoying the goods of this world is part of who we are created to be. Eden was not a place of guilty pleasures.

It all circles back to the fundamental question every person, family, clan, tribe, and nation must ask themselves: “Who is my/our God?”. If it is the goods of prosperity, the idea of prosperity, or (more crassly) our own stomachs, then we have indeed set up idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold for ourselves to worship, and it is difficult to truly be thankful for what we have received without indulgence. However, if our god is God, the Lord of Creation, the Lord of all Good Things that we are given on loan, then our gratitude has a clear target and we have a clear calling to be responsible with the prosperity we have received, both to steward it wisely and to share it generously.

For this I do thank the Lord our God!