Something Is Happening

I love rediscovering books. The scenario often goes something like this: 1) See an ad for a book via email or while browsing Amazon, 2) Buy the book, 3) Receive the book and plan to read it, 4) Not read it immediately and put it on a shelf, and 5) Rediscover the book months or years later. The latest version of the scenario played out before Christmas. I was looking for material for a devotional when I came across a thin collection of Christmas sermons by Thomas Long. He is one of the best preachers alive, so I thought he must have some wisdom for me. And he did. 

In his book, “Something Is About To Happen…”, he shares the story of man who comes back to church week after week with a contagious enthusiasm for the life of faith. When asked what keeps him coming back, he responds “It’s strange, I know, but I get the feeling here, like nowhere else, that something is about to happen.” Long shares this story in the context of Advent. Jesus is about to arrive on Christmas. Something is about to happen – the world is about to change – but it is also something more. It is the persistent hope that lives will be impacted, faith will be restored, miracles will happen, people will be fed and healed, and more. Every day is something new. It is a new possibility. 

I have commented many times that the reason I love my job is because everything is constantly changing. New challenges appear almost daily. The liturgical cycle keeps us moving and on our toes. The ebb and flow of the church year assures that there is something about to happen, almost always, that needs attention. 

In Advent, we prepared and anticipate the arrival of Christ. In this season after Christmas, we expect the world to be changed by that birth. As I said at the Christmas Eve service, we are a part of that change. In a New Year and in all we do, we know that Christ is working. Something is happening…

Christmas Brings

Last Sunday after worship, the Christmas season arrived at our house. We transformed our home with Christmas decorations over the course of the afternoon. The seasonal fall decorations (and a few leftover Halloween ones) came down and red, white, green, and gold exploded. The rooms were filled with Christmas carols. Simon stole a jingle bell from that ornament box and was dinging it through the hall. We had ladders and chairs everywhere to hang garland and bows. Closets were carefully opened to not reveal unwrapped Christmas presents that were already hiding from Black Friday shopping. (Don't tell Evan and Simon.) 

Even with Christmas a month away, it felt like it was closer once the house looked the part.

We celebrate Christmas with decorations. We celebrate it with presents. We celebrate it with family, friends, and neighbors. We even prepare for it, sometimes months in advance, but what are we celebrating? What does Christmas bring to you? What does Advent prepare for you?For me, it brings those four words so associated with this time of year and Christ’s birth: joy, hope, peace, and love. It means the arrival of a baby in a manger, Emmanuel, God with us, Jesus Christ the Son of God. More than that, we are preparing for and celebrating what it means that he is born.

The divine has come close to the human. Our comfort and strength lives among us. God and humanity are one in Jesus Christ. Our Savior is here. Christmas means all of that. It brings all of that.Jesus’ arrival brings change, as well. It means change to us and to the world. His arrival will bring wholesale upheaval to the order of the world both at his time and ours. Christmas brings change to us. At this time of year, more than any other, we do not live for ourselves. This is one of the changes his birth brings and is part of our Advent preparation. We serve others in soup kitchens. We buy presents for folks off of Angel Trees. We donate to charities serving the neediest in our communities. We invite people into the transformative story of Christmas at Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols Services. Some of that may happen elsewhere in the calendar, but it happens with a particular vigor as Christ’s birth approaches. It is a reminder, again and again, that the world is changed, is changing, will change.Christmas brings Christ. Christmas brings change.

What will it bring to you?

We Make The Road By Walking

The story goes that as Harvard University added buildings around the famous Harvard Yard through the 19thcentury that they did not include paved paths between the buildings. For decades, they simply kept adding buildings and allowed the students and professors to find their ways from building to building without set sidewalks between them. This created a spider web of intersecting paths. It also created a network of paths that were the fastest and best paths that had been discovered from getting from one building to another. Yet none were ever planned beforehand. When the walkways were eventually paved, it was the network of student and professor made ruts that were converted into sidewalks. Harvard Yard is filled with those same pathways today.

“We make the road by walking.” This is the phrase I repeat often in ministry. So much of what was once fixed and normative a generation ago in ministry and elsewhere is in flux. Like the early students and professors at Harvard, we are once again charting the quickest and best path between where we are and where we are going. What we are to do tomorrow is still in front of us.

The phrase comes from a proverb poem by the Spanish writer Antonio Machado. The suggestion is that the future only exists as we begin to live into it. It is in beginning something, anything, that we find our way. We may plan (and we should), but until we actually walk and make the road, it does not yet exist.

We are  a month from the start of Advent. In Advent, we prepare ourselves for the arrival of Jesus Christ, the baby meek and mild, but also the savior King of all creation. In entering creation, the entire biblical narrative of God’s interaction with humanity was turned on its head. Never since the Garden of Eden was the divine and human so close.  And yet, dangerously, unexpectedly, it was. God was here in the person of Jesus Christ, a baby in the manger, the Son of God on earth.

Whenever the church and the people in it are afraid of an unknown future, I think of Christ, the disciples, and the entire gospel experiment. Nothing like that had ever been done before and every disciple knew it. And still, they followed that path. No god had ever died, let alone for the sins of all creation. And nevertheless, Jesus does. We make the road by walking because often the future into which God has called us has never been trod. We make the road by walking because where God is calling us nobody has ever been before. We make the road by walking because we are the ones called out into God’s good future to do so. We make the road by walking.

New and Renewing Faith

Last Sunday, we marked the beginning of the Sunday School year with Celebration Sunday. It is also the unofficial kick off of the fall. With our adjusted calendar because of the sanctuary projects, it corresponded to the actual start of fall this year. In some churches, what we call “Celebration Sunday” is known as Rally Day or Back-to-Church Sunday. All the days, whatever they are called, mark the start or a transition towards one of the livelier seasons in the life of church. They move us beyond the carefree days of summer to a mixture of work, school, church activities, sporting events (football!), and more church activities.

I like the sentiment behind this day. We claim a faith that is timeless. We should practice our faith all the time, but our faith does require nudges from time to time. We need reminders that our faith is ever changing and, hopefully, ever growing. Our practices need to be refreshed. It is good to have a new entry point. There is still more to learn. There are more ways to live that faith out. Celebration Sunday and all the other days that mark this occasion serve as an invitation to a faith that is never stagnant.

One of my greatest joys in ministry is seeing that jump forward happen in real time. Somebody will sit in on a class and begin to engage the material. Before long, they learned something new. Maybe a comment peaks their interest. An idea or scripture takes on a new light. They connect with a bit of history they had not encountered yet. You see a recognition take place that somebody had the same question or struggle. Soon enough, the lightbulbs are coming on. I love teaching for that reason. It is a joy.

As we enter the fall and celebrate a new beginning, I also want to challenge you to reengage that faith. Join a Sunday School class. Make an extra effort to participate in worship. Open your bible and read. (Maybe find it first.) Whatever you may do, take this transition to fall as an opportunity to discover Christ anew.

Pink Polka Dot Stroller at Sunrise

A number of years ago, an older neighbor practiced Tai Chi on my street corner every morning as the sun rose. It was a beautiful juxtaposition of art and exercise bathed in the warm orange glow of the early morning light. I noted at the time his dedication. The gentleman did this every morning, regardless of temperature. The only thing that seemed to stop him was rain or snow. It was a religious and dedicated practice.

His daughter and granddaughter came to live with him and his wife after several years of this practice. There were three generations living under one roof at that point. Every morning after this change, there was no Tai Chi on the street corner. Instead, this man took his granddaughter to the park at the entrance to the neighborhood. He pushed her in a small pink polka dot stroller down the sidewalk, around the corner, and across the street swimming in the same warm glow that once lit his morning exercise. His new practice is just as religious and dedicated with a few more exceptions made for temperature.

What would be that important to you? This man is dressed and ready to play at the park with his granddaughter by 7:30am every day. She is dressed and ready to go too. Surely, they have both eaten and been awake for some time. He may have even gotten in his Tai Chi before all of this happens for all I know. What would get you going like that beyond a job Monday through Friday?Luke 12:34 contains the often quoted line, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” This is true. “For where your time is spent, there your heart will be also” might be truer. Between all the places you could expend your time, where is it actually spent? Where would you like to spend it?How much time are you spending in the park or at sunrise? How much time do you find yourself in silence or prayer? Where are you seeking out moments of awe? When do you cross paths with God?

Fall in the church always comes as an invitation. Our calendar starts again. Our programs restart. We offer a natural entrance point for your spiritual journey to start again or be renewed. This could mean worship or a Sunday school class. It could simply mean waking up to read your bible before or during the first light of the day. It might mean volunteering as schools start again or as the weather changes on our needy friends.Where would you like to spend your time? What gets you out of bed?

Good News For Today

Many of you may know, but others may not, that the New Testament of our bible was originally largely written in Greek.  While some of our English bibles rely on Latin translations or other English translations as the starting point for their versions, the truest meaning of Luke’s gospel, Paul’s letters, or even Jesus’ words is found in going to the original language, discovering what it originally said, and translating that as best we can into modern English.

The translation of a portion of Mark 2:4, I think, makes this point well.  Mark 2 is the story of a paralyzed man who is healed and forgiven by Jesus after his four friends lower him through the roof of the house. In Greek, the phrase is “ἀπεστέγασαν τὴν στέγην”.  The four friends literally “unroofed the roof” to lower their paralytic friend down into the house. “Unroofed the roof” is awkward and clumsy in modern English, so translators work to make it read smoother and sound better to our ears.  The New International Version of the bible translates that as “they made an opening in the roof”, while the English Standard Version says simply “they removed the roof”.  In either case, translators went to the original meaning of the word or phrase and then translated it into words that were understandable for the modern reader or listener.

A good portion of our task as Christians could be summed up in similar terms.  We are Christian translators.  We make a 2000 year old faith relevant and understandable to a modern audience through our words and actions.   Sometimes this takes the form of adapting music, prayers, and sermons to modern musical instruments, the internet, websites, podcasts, and social media.  And sometimes this takes the form of taking a word like gospel, good news, and asking “What modern word or concept relays the core of this word in perhaps a more meaningful way to modern hearers?”  Perhaps joy or hope would work as the modern equivalent.  “Jesus Christ comes to bring hope.”

Again, in either case, as we go out and are sent out into the world by Christ, our task is to translate the good news into a language people can understand.  Like so many missionaries who were sent to the corners of the globe and then sat down to translate the bible into the native tongue, as Christians living in this modern world our task is to translate our faith into a language a broken and needy world can hear and understand.

223rd General Assembly

Every other year, the Presbyterian Church (USA) meets in a General Assembly to worship, discern, decide, and plan together for the ministry and mission of the church. Ministers and elders from across the country come as commissioners to make decisions that impact the church. Hundreds of observers come, as well, to participate in the worship, speak on particular issues, and observe the happenings of an action packed ten days. All totaled, there were more than two thousand people in attendance at this year’s GA.

This year was my first venture to General Assembly. I had watched from home via the internet livestream broadcast for the better part of the last decade. I had even registered to attend on multiple occasions, but something always got in the way (i.e. sickness, moving, or a baby on the way). I picked a great General Assembly to attend for my first time. This was the least contentious, most gracious, and friendly gathering in recent memory. It had more the air of a massive family reunion than business meeting. The worship services were uplifting and diverse. You got the full sense of the depth and breadth of the PCUSA in all the different voices that were included in each service. The music was amazing from a six hundred voice choir to soloists to various worship bands. The liturgy for each worship service was creative and showcased the best of our tradition and traditions from around the globe. The exhibit hall was filled with representatives of universities, seminaries, camps, organizations, travel companies, artists, and the PCUSA Store book store. Across the week and in venue after venue, I got the true sense of so much that is going right in the PCUSA.

There was business to conduct too. The PCUSA was active on a number of fronts as dozens of reports and resolutions came to the General Assembly for discussion. These ranged from changes to our Book of Order to the way our pension funds are invested to current issues like child separation, climate change, and the inclusion of LGBTGIA individuals. In all the committee meetings, discussions, and debates, I was struck by the great care and passion everybody had, the dedication, and the love for our denomination. Many commissioners and observers gave up almost two weeks to be in St. Louis to faithfully serve the church and that is exactly what they did.

This is not to say the PCUSA is not shedding members or closing churches, but there is a lot to be hopeful about in this denomination too. God is working and moving in the PCUSA. It was on full display in St. Louis. I hope that continues for a long time to come. 

Church

In the center of historic Dublin, Ireland sits St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The water well where St. Patrick baptized the first Christians in Ireland in the fifth century is immediately adjacent to the building. The day school that brought organized education to the area dates from 1547 and the choir school is even older founded in 1432. In a city full of old and ancient things, St. Patrick’s Cathedral is at its heart and one of the best examples.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral is more than a church though. On the bright, warm day I visited a few years ago, the grounds were servings as an outdoor lunch area for school children and adults alike with a number of people (trying to) tan in the early summer sun. The cathedral itself serves as a museum and gift shop throughout most of the week. The rear of the church, outer aisles, and transept are filled with items significant to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and to Dublin. Many famous and religious Dubliners were even buried inside the church and their monuments are prominently displayed. Filled with hundreds of visitors on a weekday, one could imagine what the Cathedral would be like on a Sunday or for a mass early in the morning.

Ireland, like America, is in the midst of a religious transformation. While Christianity is still the dominant religion by a large margin, the number of self-identified Christians in Ireland is decreasing as is church attendance. One of the most culturally religious countries in the world is on the decline. Within a few decades the rates of religiosity among the Irish might mirror America.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral serves as an interesting case study on the purpose and place of the physical church building in the modern landscape. In Protestant circles, the church is generally conceived as simply a place for worship and spiritual development. In other traditions, the definition is broader: the church as a religious center, civic museum (and gift shop), school, cemetery, gathering place in the midst of community. Many modern churches here in America even include books stores, gyms, running tracks, coffee shops and more.

Theologian Karl Barth defined the “church” as “the living body of the living Lord Jesus Christ”. St. Patrick’s Cathedral and so many others are joyfully reflecting that definition: worship meeting history meeting the everyday life. They are living and active bodies of faith in the world.

What is the church to you? What does and can that church look like today?