High Expectations; High Permissions - With Permission to Fail

Last week at church, I preached a sermon about the Synagogue leader who scoffed at Jesus when He healed a woman on the Sabbath. The woman had been afflicted of an illness for several years, and Jesus felt that "breaking the rules" was necessary in order to do the right thing.

As I begin my preparations for another semester of seminary education (right on the heals of a long spring semester and 2 week intensive classes), I am taking a class taught by the famous Chuck Gutenson on Church Revival. The class is being taught per the mission of United Theological Seminary - "Spirit filled; renewing the Church"

I spent the last week earnestly reading Chuck's book called "Church worth getting up for." After reading the first chapter, I had to contemplate that concept - what makes for an engaged, enriching church experience that calls the people who I and my Pastor serve worth getting up for?

In the book Chuck discusses Rev Mike Slaughter's three-fold method to empower the church and make it "worth getting up for" - High permissions, high expectations, with permission to fail.

In order for us to have an impact to our church and the society which we serve, we need to make sure that we have high expectations of ourselves and others. This involves discipleship and service. We as church members and leaders need to show up, be present, and be available for ourselves our church, and our community. We need to fulfill our call to be one in our relationship with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world. That requires action and perseverance.

Next, we need to give ourselves and each other permission to do things unconventionally. I am still blown away that I had the opportunity to attend Jacob's Well church during my time between internships this summer. In all my years of attending church, I never attended a service at an indoor kids skatepark and trampoline. (FYI, I hear that they actually get on the trampoline from time to time).

Another example is City Square Church pastored by my good friends Rob Rynders and Brian Kemp-Schlemmer. They actually (gasp) hold a "Theology Pub" at a local bar to discuss spiritual matters once a month. While I personally have not attended (we live in the boonies aka Surprise, AZ), I have heard from friends that it is well attended and has great results.

These are just two of the many examples I have seen where society is being ministered to in ways that meet their needs. These are the dynamic changes which are necessary in order for us to be the hands and feet of Christ to the world.

Finally, we must all have permission to fail. This works in the corporate community. I work for a large financial organization and we have tried things that have not worked or have not been as fruitful as we would have liked. But the point is we tried. We stepped out of the box, did something, and learned from it. It is the holistic movement of growth that we as a church need. If we fail at something, we learn from it, adjust our approach and try again.

With this said, I don't believe that we need to stop what we are doing altogether. I am not advocating for a complete change of belief or practice, just our approach towards the goal of sharing the love that Christ has for us with each other and the world.

I love our Church, and am a loyal United Methodist.  John Wesley attempted to approach things from a different angle. Now is our opportunity to follow the same approach.

Abundant and inconvenient grace

In the Luke 13:10-17, we see a woman who has suffered for eighteen years from a “spirit of infirmity”. The story begins by describing Jesus as teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath, among teachers of the law, listening and interpreting scripture.

In walks this woman who appears to have both a physical ailment as well as a spiritual problem – what the text describes as a “spirit of infirmity” or a “spirit that crippled her”. She is impacted by this physical issue that she cannot even bring herself to look up to Jesus.

In that time and place, physical ills were believed to be caused by something deeper – sickness of the soul.  What happens next is significant.

Jesus sees her, and three things happen: First, He calls to her. He is the one who acknowledged her presence, not the other way around – a clear example of the grace Jesus is about to offer her.

Then he says to her “Woman, you are free of your ailment.” He speaks these words of assurance even before she reached him. By freeing her, Jesus was demonstrating His power over sickness.

Immediately, all eyes are on Jesus, and based on where she is sitting (on the opposite side of the room) and where He is seated (in the front, with the teachers), He has to walk through the entire crowd to reach her.

Finally, Jesus lays hands on her. Jesus is physically declaring His power over any physical or spiritual sickness. And what happens? The woman is made whole in body and in spirit, she stands up straight, and immediately she praises God.

Now, the synagogue leaders will have nothing to do with this heretical behavior of Jesus. In that time, the Ten Commandments determined certain behaviors and expectations of the Israelites on the Sabbath. However, as time went on, the commandments were turned into laws – hundreds of them. By Jesus’ time, there were many restrictions on what could and could not be done on the Sabbath, and healing was one of them. Therefore, the religious leaders are not praising God for the miracle that just happened; they are crying foul when Jesus isn’t following the laws of the Sabbath.

The leaders emphatically tell the crowds essentially that being cured on the Sabbath really isn’t an option. One must come on the other six days if they want to be healed.  In saying this, they have now completely marginalized a whole group of people. They speak to these people as if they are less important than the rules of the Sabbath. They have placed process above purpose.

There are many in our society who feel the same way. They feel that the rules of religion exclude them from participating and engaging in the life of the church. They feel that they are not able to be whole because of the rules of participation that are presented to them. They don’t feel the same grace that Jesus expresses in this story.

Then the Lord speaks against what is being said, calling the people in the Synagogue “hypocrites”. Then, the Lord compares the situation to that of providing water to an animal with curing a person on the Sabbath, placing greater value on the miracle which just took place than the day to day care of animals. Jesus uses their own logic against them in an attempt to make a point. His logic is that, if the law permitted loosing an animal for water on the Sabbath, shouldn’t it be permitted to loosen the bonds of this woman who has suffered for 18 years? 

Perhaps, however, it is not about this rule, but control of a marginalized portion of society. Jesus comes and breaks the rules –the rules of the Sabbath and the caste system, placing women before men, the sick before the healthy, the needs of the less in society before the rules of engagement in a church service. He demonstrates abundant grace to those in need, putting their needs above those in power.

Perhaps there are two crippled people in this story, the obvious being the woman who Jesus heals, but the other being the rulers of the synagogue, who was crippled by legalism. They couldn’t see beyond the rules of the church to see the need in front of them.

So, how does this apply to the church of today? The message is simple: we should put the needs of those around us before our need to control. Our need for rigidity and comfortableness shouldn’t supersede our God-given directive to address the needs of those around us. We shouldn’t put our systems before the people who we serve.  We who have experienced the grace of Jesus Christ in our lives need to reach out to a world in need and show that same grace to others.

This may require that we break some rules, think of things unconventionally, and reach out at times where it may be inconvenient for us, but I believe that is what God is calling us to – to show grace to a world in need. We need to resist the constant pressure to maintain the status quo. We need to reach out to those who feel alienated by the church so that we can minister to their needs.

The people of Phoenix are looking to the church for healing and wholeness. Unlike the woman in this story, they are actively pursuing and seeking the abundant grace given to us and through us in Christ Jesus. The needs of the poor and brokenhearted do not cease just because of our rules of what happens on a given day.

This Good News shouldn’t just be shared on Sundays, but on every day.

Jesus provided freedom and healing to the woman in our story today. However, he didn’t just provide healing; He provided freedom from the rules and customs that governed the church. Jesus is providing that same freedom to us – the freedom to love and to engage with the world around us, freeing the oppressed and those who are sick whether that is physical, spiritual, or emotional – the freedom to show abundant grace to those around us.

In my final paper for interreligious and intercultural encounters, I am writing about issues of poverty in our society, how we as a faith community interact and engage with people who struggle providing for their family, paying the bills, securing shelter, and putting food on the table. In order to help, we need to break out of our bondage of uniformity and create unconventional ways to identify the issue, address the immediate need, and work through our call as a church to resolve social justice issues in our society.

While I haven’t completed my thoughts on this difficult and broad subject, it causes me to ponder and ask – what am I doing as an individual and what are we as a church doing to offer abundant grace to those who suffer from generational poverty, addressing the issue with a touch of abundant grace as Jesus would?

Being Present

So, I am on this flight from Atlanta to Phoenix. Atlanta is a pretty neat airport - but nothing as awesome as O'Hare.....Chicago style hot dogs are amazing!!!!

However, right now I am not interested in hot dogs. I just want to get home. It's been 2 very long weeks away from my family. There's been a few challenges while I have tried to help manage the household from Ohio.

While we were boarding the flight, the boarding all of a sudden stopped. There was a group of people who were fresh from a mission trip in El Salvador who were having a good time sharing their experiences with those around them.

What made the boarding stop was their discussion with an older man pertaining to his salvation. While I absolutely support and affirm our call to support people as they feel the grace of God in their lives, and feel their hearts "strangely warmed" as Mr. Wesley puts it, I think we as leaders need to be present throughout the entire experience.

Once this group was done talking with this man, he wasn't done talking. He wanted to share all about his life, where he was raised, his grandchildren. They really didn't seem interested.

So, it caused me to pause. When we are helping people experience God's grace, I believe we need to be present. We need to be the hands and feet of Christ in their world at that moment.

Being "in the moment" with those who God calls children is imperative. We need to not only address the long term needs of those who we support, we need to support their immediate needs. We need to take a vested interest in the lives of those who we are called to serve.

This man had an amazing life to share. He was raised in Lewistown, Montana - just about 2 hours from where I was raised. He has children, and he loves them. He also has grandchildren.

And that's important - it's important to embrace and support the whole person.

Giving and Receiving

"If you are not receiving as much as you are giving,  you are not there."

One of the things that I have learned over the last two weeks, we need to be able to give AND receive. While our communities may want us to be Superman, sometimes that just isn't possible. We need to, as all humans, receive and give at the same rate in order to maintain balance.

There is a poem which I am reading today titled "We are composed of others." As I read the poem, there isn't anything specific that comes to mind, but the phrase "we are composed of others" provides that relationship between myself and the "other" person where, in engagement with the other person, perhaps I am able to receive and give at the same time.

I believe, perhaps, that Jesus demonstrates this time and time again throughout the four gospels. Luke 9:58 states, "Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." This is, I believe, a good analogy on how we as Christian leaders and Christians in general should approach our lives and our relations to others. When we engage with those outside the church, we need to not only welcome them into our lives, but we also need to receive in that dialogue.

Calling - A Poem

Last year this time,  I heard Rev. Dr. Lisa Hess preach, and she spoke of one's calling. I was so mesmerized by this poem, that I asked her to send me a copy.  In turn, she gave me the script of her sermon from that evening.

While I continue to ponder my life's work and continue to discern and articulate God's call on my life as a Pastor, I think I will post this in an effort to be present with what the poem is telling you & I.

Calling

Written by J. Barrie Shepherd           

Both less and more than family and good friends,

still you belong there at the high moments and the low,

included in the laughter and the tears, all the embraces,

words and gestures of delight and consolation,

across the years even participating in remembering,

noting the absences, the gaps among the circled chairs,

the ones who couldn't make it for whatever reason,  

 glad or sad.

Both less and more than family and good friends,

still you belong there at the high moments and the low,

included in the laughter and the tears, all

 the embraces,

words and gestures of delight and consolation,

across the years even participating in remembering,

noting the absences, the gaps among the circled chairs,

the ones who couldn't make it for whatever reason,  

   glad or sad.

Yet, for all the long and hard earned familiarities,

You are also set apart. You have a role to play,

a place to fill, a dimension toward which it is your duty

and your privilege to focus everyone's attention.

Your task to speak the words

and open up the silences that unite,

that lend shape and form and texture,

and at least a glimpse of the beyond,

within these joyful/painful moments crammed

   with here and now.

If you can do it, if you can evoke and hold together

both this world and the next, if you can

   somehow embody,

even for the instant of a handclasp or a prayer,

that sheer intensity of presence

that fills all absence with new hope,

then they may realize they have a pastor,

then you may even touch the fringes

of the garment of the Master.

Why write?

Why write....

This will be my second attempt at creating a blog where I can share my growing skill set as a candidate for ordination, student, teacher, and father. I think there are many roles which we own, hence an intersection of faith, life, and love.

This past week, I have been at Seminary - an experience which I will post on from time to time. My morning class is Christian History, but my afternoon class is "Methods of Interreligious and Intercultural Encounter". 

Part of this class has included "fast writes", which is my opportunity to both share and hear from my colleagues reflecting on the current topic, whether it be a poem, a movie, or just general class discussion. For the purposes of confidentiality, I will not share what was discussed in that sacred space.

However, I think there is a sacred space out there in the world which we share with our sisters and brothers, regardless of their faith or culture. Hence, the name of my title: Contextual Christianity. 

I believe we experience our Christianity in context of our histories, our current cultural dynamics, and the cultural dynamics of others. Pardon the phrase, but I think our contextual Christianity evolves over time. That increases both our awareness of ourselves and others, and deepens our faith.

It is my hope through my "blogging" that I can share more about myself, my family, my educational experience, and ultimately my faith, for I believe that all of those pieces intersect to who I am.