Category Archives: Christian Faith

August 4, 2023 · 11:39 am

Staying Positive in a Negative World

In case you haven’t noticed we are living in a period of history when there is a good deal of negativity. Perhaps that’s not too different from other times, but this is our time and so it’s notable. I hear it in people’s words when they say things like, “I don’t like the way things are going . . . (fill in the blank: at work, in our country, with the church, etc.)” We hear it in the news media – one report after another of “bad” news. We see it in the behaviors and countenance of others. Seems to me the world – or at least the part of it that I see regularly – is in a rather grumpy mood. Some people are trying to capitalize on this by stirring up even more negativity, projecting violence onto others, or just being difficult to be around.

So, what to do? What is our response, particularly as people of “Good News”, to life in such a negative climate? While I am no expert in this field, over the past few years I’ve tried to adopt some personal behaviors and live by some decisions that help me stay positive in this negative environment. Do I succeed all the time? No, but I offer these steps to you, here, in hopes they might prompt your own decisions and actions of positive preservation.

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July 27, 2023 · 3:46 pm

Becoming an Apprentice in the Jesus Way of Life

According to the Cambridge Dictionary an apprentice is “someone who has agreed to work for a skilled person for a particular period of time in order to learn that person’s skills”. Merriam Webster adds, that an apprenticeship is “an arrangement in which someone learns an art, trade, or job under another”.

Skilled trades often come to mind when I think about someone who is an apprentice or serving an apprenticeship – trades like carpenters, plumbers and electricians. But what if we were to think of our life in Christ, our life of discipleship in the terms of apprenticeship? Could such an understanding bring a freshness or new energy and eagerness to how one endeavors to follow Jesus?

I’m not sure that “disciple” or “discipleship” are completely overused or worn out terms, or that they carry the negative connotation for some Christ followers, and pre-Christians as say the word “evangelism”. But, both words are oft used in the church and Christ following circles. How many times in a sermon have you heard the word “disciple” used? Or, how many times is “discipleship” a topic of a prayer or a devotional writing you may participate in? (Maybe you should count?) Sometimes a new or different word causes us to pay attention in a new or fresh way. Thinking about being an apprentice of Jesus has done this for me.

What works in this understanding is that following Jesus has always been about a way of life. When Jesus was first approached by a couple of the disciples of John, curious about this one John had identified as the “Lamb of God”, Jesus invites them to “come and see” where he is staying? It’s a way of saying, come and try this out, follow me, learn from me. Certainly there must have been information and teaching shared, the didactic part of discipleship, but that’s not what is most obvious about their following Jesus. What’s most obvious is that they spent time with him, literally shared life with him, watched and learned from him, maybe even began to imitate the things he said and did. They became his apprentices.

Somewhere in its history the church turned discipleship away from this “way of life” approach toward more and more of a cognitive, what we believe, approach. Doctrine overtook praxis as the definitive marker of discipleship. We worried more about what we thought, than how we acted. We heard Jesus say, “love one another as I have loved you”, but turned that into a doctrine of loving your neighbor verses a way of life steeped in the practice of loving those who are our neighbor.

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May 22, 2023 · 10:10 pm

Pondering Pentecost

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house . . . . Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
(Acts 2:1-4 NRSV)

Imagine you were there, in the city for the Pentecost festival, celebrating and giving thanks for the first fruits of the wheat harvest. Maybe you traveled some distance to attend, as was expected of the devout worshippers of the One God. Others were present as residents of Jerusalem, having made the City of David their home some years prior. Whatever the situation, just 50 days prior you had been present for the Passover festival, and now it was Pentecost.

Your memories from Passover were still fresh. You had been among the pilgrims when the One they called Messiah entered the city. You were aware of his arrest just a few days later. Then you heard he had been crucified – another victim of Rome’s brutal sense of justice.

But the most astonishing reports had circulated in the days that followed, that he was somehow once again alive! These reports even reached your home town miles and days away from Jerusalem. Could it be true? Now, back in the Holy City, reports from the grapevine newsfeed were that his followers had resurfaced, and were preaching and teaching in this risen One’s name.

Coming to Jerusalem for a major festival was always a melting pot experience. People of different lands, languages and ethnicities gathered in the common cause of faith and devotion. Jews and God Fearers alike occupied the city, with some Gentiles around, looking to profit off the business opportunities a crowd brings. And, of course, the ever present Romans, keeping – enforcing – the peace.

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April 6, 2023 · 3:24 pm

A New Commandment

The more memorable congregational moments in my tenure as a pastor often coincided with one of the supporting service types of worship experiences found alongside a high holy season. It wasn’t the Christmas Eve service, for example, so much as perhaps an Advent service leading up to Christmas. And it wasn’t Easter worship, for me, as much as the Maundy Thursday service a few days prior.

I’m thinking of this today on Maundy Thursday. It’s the beginning of the Triduum, the three days beginning with Thursday evening through Easter Sunday, that mark the Paschal celebration of Jesus’ last supper, Garden prayers, arrest, trial, death by crucifixion, burial and resurrection. Each of the events of these days are significant, and each worthy of our attention. But there is an intimacy and togetherness found in the Maundy Thursday observance that has always deeply moved me.

Maybe it was the scene of that upper room, prepared for Jesus and the Twelve to share the Passover. I can imagine these men coming together for their celebration. Already the week in Jerusalem had produced surprising outcomes. There had been the triumphal entry parade, the cleansing of the moneychangers from the Temple, and significant teaching moments by the Messiah. Sharing a Passover meal would be a welcome respite and time of reflection away from the crowds. Yet, this night began with such an unexpected, and to some extent unwelcome, overture from Jesus as he insisted on washing their feet!

Writing this last sentence brings to mind prior Maundy Thursday services where we had some version of foot washing. Truly this act of service is one that makes its recipient humbled. How like Jesus to provide such an object lesson for the Twelve. It must have set a tone for their time together. Through their mix of shame (why didn’t one of them do this?) and having been humbled, they must now have been ready to listen to the Teacher.

Yet, what followed was no less astonishing. Jesus repurposed the Passover to tell of his coming death, assigning new meaning to the bread and the cup, representations of His body and blood which was to be broken and shed for sin – all sin, their sin and ours. Then, as the evening was drawing to a close, John tells us (John 13:34) that He gave them a new commandment. Here is where we get the term “maundy” from the Latin word “mandatum” meaning mandate or command: “love one another, just as I have loved you”.

A good teacher will tell you that presenting a lesson through varied methods raises the likelihood of its being remembered. People retain information more, for example, when they not only hear words, but also put their other senses to the retention. If we “see” a picture retention increases. If we have a “hands on” discovery of learning retention grows even more pronounced. Jesus was a good teacher. He gave His disciples a well-rounded lesson this night that engaged them through multiple mediums of presentation. They heard his words, but they also saw his actions, and they felt his touch. This new commandment, to love one another as He had loved them, would stick because of all the ways His life had and would demonstrate love.

As I reflect back over some of the more meaningful Maundy Thursday worship experiences of years gone by, I think part of their meaning came from the multisensory connections they utilized – sight, sound, touch, taste, light, darkness, silence and more. Jesus did so much more than tell us to love one another, he showed us what love is. He lived love, touched our lives with it, gave us a way to remember it, celebrate it, and share it. Standing on the cusp of another Triduum I’m mindful of this. Maundy Thursday was the opening scene in what would prove to be a meaningful beyond description last act of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry. Just as it prepared His Disciples to become attuned to what was coming, so might it help us to grasp the meaning of these days once again. So might it help us in obedience to His command: “love one another, just as I have loved you”.

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April 2, 2023 · 8:34 am

Parade Rest

On this Palm Sunday we turn our attention to the readings of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Mark 11:1ff; Matthew 21:1ff; Luke 19:28ff; John 12:12ff). This is such a story of juxtaposition. On the one hand we have the celebratory acts of what appears to be a spontaneous parade of welcome. People line the street and then cover i,t with their cloaks and palm branches in advance of Jesus’ passing by on the donkey’s colt. It’s the fulfillment of prophecy (Zech. 9:10-11) and in the tradition of a royal or military entrance into the city. Herod or Pilate, in the name of Caesar would have made these kinds of entrances into Jerusalem, though with more might and prestige.

But on the other hand, Jesus’ entrance into the Holy City of David on what we’ve come to call Palm Sunday, while triumphant, was also humble and surrounded with feelings and acts of sorrow and contemplation. Luke records the pause Jesus makes at a scenic overlook (19:41ff) to weep over the city and announce it’s one day overthrow. He then takes the reader with Jesus and the Disciples to the cleansing of the Temple (19:45ff). How can one day encapsulate such differing outcomes?

This is what makes Palm/Passion Sunday such a perfect entry point into Holy Week. It holds in tension these various and opposite emotions that will continue to play forth through this week. We are alerted from the beginning that things are moving toward a climax, which will involve sorrow, suffering, anguish and triumph and victory.

How often life holds these same tensions together. How often gain is companioned by loss, pain comes with joy, suffering precedes celebration. The oxymoron term “parade rest” feels a fit descriptor of this day and all it stands for. Which is it going to be, a parade, or rest? Turns out, both. Jesus will parade into the city in triumph, with the joy and praise of the people, the climax of his mission within sight. And Jesus will rest with the awful truth of what is about to transpire at Calvary. The Disciples will rest with the tension of a Messiah who is at once both the answer to all they’ve prayed for, and an unexpected if not down right confusing messenger of how those prayers will be answered.

The only fitting response to Palm Sunday is to throw ourselves into the mixed responses. We too should proclaim with praise and joy that the King is coming. We should worship this King Jesus and welcome Him into our day, this week, and our lives. But, knowing as we do what lies past the threshold of the week’s opening act, let us also be prepared to “rest” with our King. Let us be ready to visit the hard places of the week, to reflect, confess, weep and keep vigil in the throws of grief and loss. Let us give these days their due as we join the parade and rest along its route.

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