Witness?

Every Christian is called to be a witness to Jesus Christ. A witness is someone who shares what they have seen or experienced with others. A witness is someone who points others to Jesus Christ by the content of their character. During this season of Advent we are reminded that John the Baptist “came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world” (John 1:6-9).

John the Baptist had a unique ministry in the sense that he bridged the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. He was the last of a great line of Hebrew prophets. The part of his ministry that was not unique, and that we share through the power of the Holy Spirit, was his calling to be a witness of Jesus Christ.

Interestingly, the concept of “witnessing” is usually given short-change in Christian circles. In mainline churches this is often equated with living a good life and in evangelical churches with challenging others to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. Obviously, both living the Gospel and challenging others to accept the Gospel are part of the total picture of what it means to be a witness.

However, a problem with defining witnessing as “living a good life” is that we usually reduce this to mean living a “middle-class American life,” which is not necessarily in alignment with the teachings of the Gospel. The problem with defining witnessing as “challenging others to accept Christ” is what do we mean by accepting Christ? Do we and the people we challenge realize the consequences of accepting Christ? Does accepting Christ mean praying a prayer or does it mean accepting a person into your life who will radically change every aspect of it?

We are witnesses and every-day we have an opportunity to let the light of our faith shine through our actions. When people examine our lives: at work, with our friends, with our family, when we’re driving, when were shopping, wherever we are – do they see Jesus Christ in us?

That is the question we must reflect on every day, especially during this season of Advent.

Repentance not easy but Essential

Changing our lives is never an easy thing. Repentance is seldom a pain free process. Advent calls us to examine our lives closely in light of the guest that we will welcome into our hearts and homes at Christmas. Repentance happens when you recognize your sin, confess it to God, ask Christ into your life and start to live differently. If you remove any of these steps from the process you don’t have repentance.

1.      Recognize Your Sin

A true recognition of how we’ve messed up requires the work of the Holy Spirit, not merely to prick our conscience but to align our conscience with the will of God.  As Christians the Holy Spirit dwells within us (1 Corinthians 3:16), but even then we can deny the work of the Holy Spirit and turn a blind eye to what we know is wrong. It is also possible that we are ignorant of what is wrong, and increasingly this is not unusual in a society whose prevailing ethics are in complete opposition to the ethics of the Gospel. When we recognize our sin we recognize the fact that the way we are living is in opposition to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

2.      Confess it  to God

Sin is a multi-faceted reality, but one of the things sin always does is break relationship. Sin always has a relational consequence, impairing our relationship with God, with others, or even ourselves as we were created to be. Since the Triune God is the source and summit of all relationships, all sin is a direct offense to God. This is why we must confess our sin to God. It is an acknowledgement that we have injured our friendship with God, broken His moral laws, and have willfully chosen to disobey His will. 

3.      Ask Christ into your Life

Sin is not a problem we can out-smart, out-work, or beat to death by ourselves. In the mystery of God’s love for us He sent His only Son to deal with sin so that you and I might be able to overcome it (2 Corinthians 5:21). When repenting of particular sins we should ask Christ to enter that particular part of our lives (i.e., “Jesus, please come into my heart so that I might not be so angry all the time”). Without Christ we will never be able to change our lives in the way that God wishes us to change them. Asking Christ into our lives is our humble recognition of our need for grace, for love, and for help from God (incidentally we also do this every time we put our hands out to receive the Eucharist).  

4.      Start to Live Differently

The results of repentance are both salvation (a free relationship with God and entrance into the reality that is heaven, which begins now, and echoes throughout eternity) and sanctification. Sanctification is the theological word referring to our growth as a Christian. The Christian life is not to be measured by attendance at Sunday services (though these are essential) but by growth in our character, in our attitude, and in our obedience to commandments of the Gospel. One pastor said that, “Confession without repentance is just bragging.” The point being that repentance is a road way that supposed to lead to a new location, a new behavior, a new life. Yes, we will struggle to repent, sometimes we will fail, but the direction of repentance is always away from sin and toward new life.

Advent is a season for us to repent, to get our lives together, in anticipation of the return of the King.

Why Wait?

“For centuries the Church has said you cannot celebrate Christmas rightly without doing Advent first.” This bold statement by an Anglican Dominican priest captures the spirit of the Church’s liturgical year, but may leave the ordinary Christian questioning its validity, not so much theologically, but practically speaking. After all, what is really missed if we skip Advent and jump right into the party of Christmas with the rest of our culture after Thanksgiving, after Halloween, around the beginning of November?

Can we not enjoy the festivities of Christmas straight away: the cheer, the hustle and bustle, the decorations, the music, and the rest? We can, but we’ll miss out on some things along the way. Think of Advent and Christmas as two parts of an epic film, with Advent telling the first part of the story and Christmas the rest. Without Advent, you’ll enjoy Christmas, but much of what is happening will go straight over your head or will be more confusing than comforting.

Think of the relationship between Advent and Christmas as being akin to the relationship between engagement and marriage. The period of engagement is a period of preparation before the big day, which leads to an even bigger deal: a new kind of life with new possibilities and new commitments. Advent is our engagement period before we celebrate the coming of the King. In fact, the entire Christian life on earth is a period of engagement, a holy preparation, getting us ready for that day when the King will return and the fullness of our relationship with God will be realized.

 
So if you’re in favor of hasty weddings, with little or no preparation, by all means jump right into Christmas. For my part, I’d rather prepare for the big day, and more importantly, for the bigger deal that follows.

Spirituality of Thanksgiving

Thank God is perhaps the most basic form of prayer in Western civilization. Even if we didn't grow up in a home that immersed itself in a rich tradition of spirituality (which I certainly didn’t) most people would be familiar with the idea of thanking God. In my work with families over the years I've always been amused by the "forced" thankfulness of some young people. If you're a parent or where once a child you probably know what I'm talking about. Here is how it works. A parent comes to pick up their kid from some activity: school, sports, church -- whatever. As they leave the parent inevitably says, "Did you say thank you?" to which the child replies with a monotone "thank you," as he/she goes to the car. In families where manners are valued the idea of please and thank you are drilled into children from infancy. I'm not complaining about this because it was drilled into me and I'm glad it was.

Yet I wonder how much of this robotic responsiveness to thankfulness continues to influence our understanding of gratitude as adults. Consider the fact that in general we tend to approach thankfulness as an obligation. We write thank you notes because we're supposed to and we say thank you to gifts, lunches, and compliments that are less than appealing because we want to be polite. When a crisis strikes a neighbor or a different part of the country we are often reminded of our blessings. We pause to consider that our life isn't so bad after all and we are very grateful, very thankful, that whatever tragedy has struck, hasn't struck in our own backyard.

Even this kind of thankfulness is incomplete. It is true thankfulness, but it's a thankfulness that says "I'm glad those other people got hurt, and not me." Closer to the Biblical notion of thankfulness is the mere acknowledgment of your heartbeat; a simple thanks for the air you breathe or an innate sense of gratitude when watching children playing. It's a thankfulness that has been placed deep in our hearts by the Spirit of God. It's a posture that we as followers of Jesus are to approach life with. Life may have its up and downs, but we won't change our posture – we won’t stop being thankful.

That’s one reason that Christians have historically celebrated the Eucharist weekly, because Eucharist in the Greek language means “thanksgiving.” The Eucharist reminds us to be thankful and strengthens us to be thankful despite the tough stuff of life. Christians are fundamentally called to be a thanksgiving people – we are in the business of saying thank you. Are you a thanksgiving person?

Are you Ready for Advent?

This Sunday marks the beginning of the historic season of Advent. Advent is the beginning of the Christian year, sometimes also referred to as the Liturgical year. Advent is intended to be a time of waiting, watching, and preparation. The preparation is in reference to the coming of Jesus Christ: first in His birth in Bethlehem and then again at the end of time when He will return to “judge the living and the dead.”

Advent, like the other seasons of the Christian year, is intended to do more than provide a color code for Sunday service vestments, but to shape the daily pattern of our lives. There are a variety of traditions related to the celebration of Advent for individuals, couples, and families. The most well known is the use of an Advent wreath and the lighting of that wreath, usually at the principal meal of the day, accompanied by a prayer (for more ways you or your family can observe Advent click here).

Traditionally, Advent is a time marked by silence, quiet reflection, as well as service to others in preparation for the great feast of Christmas. In our North American culture this time of year is marked by the exact opposite: noise, stress, and self-indulgence (if you’re sick of this dichotomy, join the Advent Conspiracy by clicking here). Observing Advent requires a willingness to be different than our co-workers, families, and friends. Observing Advent requires a willingness to say, “I’m not ready to celebrate Christmas yet, I have to prepare first.” Advent is not about squashing holiday fun, but about capturing the deeper joy, the deeper meaning, and the deeper power of Christmas.  In addition, Advent causes us not only to recall the events of Bethlehem, but to consider the future as it relates to the return of our King, and whether we are ready for Him to return or not.   

I want to leave you with the words of Father Tony Clavier, an Episcopal priest, who offers some good advice related to this time of year, and to the season of Advent: “We perhaps moan about a secularized Christmas that begins before Thanksgiving and ends abruptly on the day after Christmas. Rather than moaning we can meet the challenge it presents. We can be subversive by keeping Advent in holy preparation.”

Healing and Christian Faith

October 18 is the feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist, also known as Saint Luke the Physician. According to Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition, Luke was a medical doctor who was a friend and co-worker of the Apostle Paul. The miracles performed by Jesus and by the Apostles’ remind us that healing played a prominent role in the early days of the Christian faith. This healing work has continued throughout Church history into the modern day.

Modern medicine, hospitals, and counseling can trace much of their development and origin to the Church. Today, healing in all its modern and scientific forms is offered by many sorts of people, and many sorts of institutions. For this Christians should be thankful, trusting that God uses individuals and institutions regardless of their belief as channels of His healing power.

The supernatural work of healing, which has manifested itself in every century of the Church, is met with more skepticism today than it was during the time of Jesus. Today, we are aware of many scandals and charlatans, people pretending to be so called “faith healers,” and so for many of us, the idea of miraculous healing is hard to accept.

These doubts have not stopped many Christians from continuing to pray for healing, whether through doctors or through the miraculous intervention of the Holy Spirit. Prayer chains, healing services, and specialized healing ministries (see here for example) continue to fill the Christian landscape in North America.

God may indeed work His healing power through these sorts of services and through our prayers, perhaps in the way we want, perhaps not. As one man said, “I have prayed hundreds, if not thousands of times for the Lord to heal me and He finally healed me of the need to be healed.”

Who is a Spiritual Person?

Here’s the problem. The Church has often given the impression that there is one cookie-cutter way to being a spiritual person, to being a Christian. There is not. If you take ten spiritually mature Christians and put them in a room they will not all resemble each other. Of course, they will share much in common in terms of their values and their relationships with Christ and others.

There are many paths or ways of following Jesus Christ; of being a spiritual person; of being a disciple; in short, of being a Christian. Here are some of them. 

The Serving Pathway

These folks come alive spiritually when they are helping others. They are the sort of person who wants to help people in practical ways. They rightly recognize that being a Christian means doing good for others. These folks flourish more in doing for others than they do in Bible studies and conversation groups.  

The Relational Pathway

These folks come alive spiritually as they develop meaningful connections with other people. They are the sort of person who wants to spend time with others. They rightly recognize that being a Christian means being in community. Take this kind of person away from other Christians and their spiritual life will tank quickly.   

The Intellectual Pathway

These folks come alive spiritually when they are able to engage their minds with the truths of the Christian faith.  They rightly recognize that being a Christian means learning new concepts and learning to worship God with our minds. These kinds of folks tend to suffer spiritually when in a church that doesn’t challenge their minds or take intellectual questions seriously.

The Contemplative Pathway

These folks come alive spiritually when they are able to spend long periods of time in prayer and silence with God. They rightly recognize that being a Christian means developing a close relationship with God. Trying to force these types of people to be more activist and “busy” often kills their spiritual life.

The Artistic Pathway

These folks come alive spiritually when they are creating or expressing something deep from their hearts. They rightly recognize that being a Christian means recognizing the beauty of art and that art should be used to honor God. Often people wired this way have no formal or official way of expressing their gifts in the Church, which damages their spiritual life.

Creation Pathway

These folks come alive spiritually when they are outdoors. They rightly recognize that being a Christian means recognizing the goodness and beauty of creation.  These types of people tend to suffer spiritually when they are unable to get outside, whether their preference is the water, the woods, the mountains, or the prairie.

The Activist Pathway

These folks come alive spiritually when they are putting everything on the line for a cause or work they believe to be important. They rightly recognize that being a Christian means being willing to sacrifice and to give our all for the causes of the Kingdom. Activists suffer when people try to “slow them down” and force them to adopt a more normal lifestyle.

The problem is that the Church has often given the impression that the “contemplative” path way is the only and best way to being a spiritual person. This is a sinful and heretical notion (and I do not use those words lightly) that has paralyzed generations of so-called ordinary Christians.  The best way to move forward in your Christian life is to embrace your primary pathway. Yes, you may be able to see yourself in more than one pathway, though for most of us one pathway dominants.

Let me say that there are certain practices and commitments that all Christians should be developing, regardless of their pathway (i.e. prayer, worship, giving, etc.). But persons of different pathways will engage in these practices differently. For example, someone with the serving pathway may have a very short time with God in the morning, a short bit of Scripture and a few short prayers, while the person with the contemplative pathway may start their day with an hour in silent prayer. One is not better than the other.

I think those of us who are teachers and leaders in the Church need to do a better job of letting people know what it means to be a spiritual person. The stereotype of what it means to be spiritual person is still out there and is still preventing many men and women from recognizing themselves as spiritual persons. This not only hurts them, but hurts the Church, because we need all the pathways in full operation to carry out the mission Jesus has given us. 

Sunday Worship

The importance of weekly worship is often under estimated by Christians today. Recent research tells us that those who attend a local church once every six weeks are considered regular attendees. Just two or three decades ago regular attendance would have been considered roughly two to three Sundays a month. For many Christians in North America life consists of one overbooked week after another. In the midst of job, family, and other commitments attendance at weekly worship is something that is sometimes, often frequently, allowed to slip.

This is, however, a dangerous trend, because the Christian life depends in many ways on the cultivation of regular habits. In fact, because life is more hectic and more stressful than in times past the importance of weekly worship increases. Martin Luther is often quoted as saying, “I’m too busy today NOT to pray.” Luther rightly recognized that as the pace of our life increases the need for prayer and worship also increases.  This is because we can easily forget who we are as Christians. We can easily lose our way and attendance at weekly worship is one of the practices that can keep us on track in our Christian lives.

When we miss weekly worship we leave a spot empty at the family table of our local church. We also we miss out on hearing the latest “family news” and from giving and receiving personal encouragement.  When we miss weekly worship we miss an opportunity to be reminded of who we are and the distinct and very different life we are to live. When we miss weekly worship we miss an opportunity to connect with Christ in a special way (especially in the Eucharist). Plus, each time we miss worship makes it easier not to attend the next time.

There are occasions where it is not possible to attend Sunday worship. However, these occasions are very rare, usually limited to sickness or dire emergencies. If we are traveling, there is almost always a church nearby (which may or may not be our particular denomination, but that does not matter), and we simply have to adjust our plans in order to worship. Even if we work some weekends, there are churches now that offer worship services at other times of the day and the week. If we are on a camping trip or stranded somewhere we can by ourselves, with a friend, or our family, enjoy a time of worship through the simple reading of Scripture and prayer.

Is missing a Sunday service the end of the world? Of course not, is missing one of your kid’s or best friend’s important event the end of the world? Probably not, is forgetting to say “I love you” to your spouse on a given day the end of the world? Probably not, yet, there is a danger here that we start to take things for granted, including our relationship with God. When we start thinking along the lines of “what is the minimal commitment I can get away with when it comes to regular worship?” we are in significant danger spiritually.

Yes, the Christian life is about more (much more!) than attendance at weekly services, but this is an important part of that life and one that should we take very seriously, following the advice of Saint Paul, “let us..not neglect meeting together, as is the habit of some” (Hebrews 10:24,25).

  

PS: Local churches sometimes contribute to this problem by only offering one service on Sunday morning, saying in effect, “If you can’t come on Sunday morning, then to bad for you.” Also, local church leaders often don’t encourage weekly attendance (sometimes don’t attend weekly themselves), don’t encourage members to attend churches of other denominations when traveling, and don’t make available simple materials for individual and family worship when attendance at a local church service would be difficult to arrange. I could go on by saying that churches don’t always make past sermons available, either in print or online, or by reducing their services during the summer, etc.

PSS: I won’t even even get into the fact that in some Christian traditions the committed are encouraged to attend worship services daily! 

Words are Necessary

In the Episcopal Calendar, October 4, is the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. Francis is without question the world’s most popular saint. His passion and his radical acceptance of Christ’s teaching have earned him the respect and admiration of people everywhere. One phrase that is often attributed to Francis is, “Preach the Gospel, if necessary use words.” I certainly find much to applaud in this statement with its emphasis on the content and quality of our lives.  In fact, one could make a compelling case that much of what is needed in the Church today, especially in its evangelistic mission, is a better witness, as evidenced by the transformed lives of its members. In particular, I’m thinking of the so-called ordinary Christian: the sort of believer with responsibilities to country, work place, and family.

Francis was a preacher. He believed that words were necessary and often used them. However, the communication of the Christian message – of Christian words – is not to be limited to preachers. Every Christian, regardless of their particular gifting, is called by God to share the Gospel in words. Even the Episcopal Church, which today is seldom associated with excellence in preaching or evangelism recognizes this in her official liturgy. One of the promises that every Episcopalian makes at their own baptism is this: “Celebrant: Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ? – People: I will, with God’s help.” This vow including the others in the Baptismal Covenant, are renewed by Episcopal Christians several times over the course of their lives (often multiple times a year).

Words and deeds complement one another. A Christian life must contain both. It is true that some are gifted or blessed with special skill in communication, especially spiritual communication, but our lack of gifting or training does not remove the responsibility we have as men and women of God to use words when necessary.  Those of us with special gifts or a particular ministry which involves the use of words will be held by God to a greater standard than the average believer (James 3:1), but all Christians are called to use them.

One question remains, exactly when or where, are words necessary?

Fans of Jesus?

Last week I wrote about commitment and the Christian life. Discipleship, the following of Jesus Christ in every aspect of one’s life – private and public – is the Biblical call of all Christians. In fact, if you review the official documents or liturgies of virtually every Christian denomination you will find this serious commitment spelled out, sometimes in significant detail, such as in the baptismal vows of the Episcopal Church.  

Of course, we know that many Christians are not committed to their faith in any serious way. We also know in our own hearts that there are aspects of our own lives that are not in alignment with Christian teaching. No one has arrived at the destination of discipleship as long as they walk among the living. Yet there is clearly a difference between a person seeking to be a disciple and a person who has little interest in that level of commitment.

A disturbing realization I had one day was that in some aspects of my life I am striving to be a disciple, but in other aspects I’m really just a fan of Jesus (and more worrisome, seemly content for that to be so). In other words, while I admire Jesus’ own lifestyle and that of His followers over the centuries I’m not so sure I’m ready to do the same. I say, “yes, thank God for people like Francis of Assisi, or the many local saints I’ve know in my Christian life who give so sacrificially of their time, talent, and treasure,” but I’m not going to do that – not at that level – good for them!

I think all of us would do well to come to terms with the fact that often we are more fans of Jesus than we are followers. This recognition will help us to be more humble and less prone to judge others whose Christian commitment we believe is lacking. In addition, this recognition may awaken in us a need to repent and by the power of the Holy Spirit to surrender to Christ in deeper ways.

Committed Christian?

To be a Christian necessarily involves commitment. The first followers of Jesus understood this. They knew that following Christ would come at a cost. These early Christians, like those Christians persecuted today, knew from personal experience that faith in Jesus was a life altering affair. For those of us who grew up in the Church, the cost of Christian living often seems pretty cheap. Show up on Sundays, be a good person, and if you’re a parent make sure your kids get into Sunday school and youth group. For those who want to be more committed come extra hours of volunteer service, the sometimes heated controversies of local church politics (e.g. what color rug should we have in the parish hall, we can’t remove that so and so donated it, etc.), and for the truly heroic, service in the wider denomination, which often means death by meeting.

This Saturday, I will be presiding at the life profession service of one my parishioner’s who is a member of the Anglican Order of Preachers (Dominicans). The taking of religious vows has long been an option for Christians who wish to take their commitment to Christ and His Church seriously. Certainly, joining a religious order is not for the majority of Christians. Nor are those who are members of religious communities somehow innately superior to those who are not. The call to a formal and overtly sacramental life as a member of a religious order or as a priest is only for a few. This is because the ordinary work of the faith, the people through whom God will advance His Kingdom, are not supposed to be priests, religious, church staffers, but so called “ordinary” Christians.

The twenty year old college student and the sixty year old accountant are just as called by God as is the priest or the religious sister. The difference is merely in the details. All four persons are called to grow in prayer, in letting the Holy Spirit shape their characters, in witnessing to the Resurrection and in living out the mission of Jesus to love their neighbors as themselves.  The difference relates to their personalities, their gifts, and the particular role God has directed them to play in the Body of Christ. We must avoid the heretical notion that only some are called to be holy, while others are called to do the grunt work. To be holy, is to be Christ-like. To be holy, is to be fully human. This requires that we cooperate with the Holy Spirit, which honestly, often feels like grunt work. Some of the holiest persons in the world have achieved their closeness with God and their open heartedness toward man by seeking God in the grunt work (whether that was washing dishes, folding laundry, or tending the wounds of the sick and the dying).

The phrase so and so “is a committed Christian” is an unfortunate reflection on the state of Christianity today. By all Biblical standards shouldn’t such a phrase be redundant?

Does God Attend Church? Re-Thinking Where Faith Should Be Lived, part 5

The Domestic Church is the Real Church

When we think about the basic unit of society, we inevitably think of the family. Of course, the nature of what defines a family is rapidly shifting and re-arranging itself in our society. I should add that the definition of family has been challenged and re-arranged several times over the centuries and even today takes on many different shapes depending on which culture and which individual family one is looking at. Yet, regardless of the definition we use or would prefer to use it can be agreed that family life has an incredible impact on individuals: their worldview, their future health, their future relationships, etc. etc. etc.

This is just as true when it comes to matters of faith. A great loss in many parts of North American Christianity is the loss of what I will call the domestic church, this meaning the vibrant union of Christian faith with ordinary family life. This means the development and practice of rituals, customs and family life patterns that intersect with Christian faith. Many evangelical Christians still practice family devotions, which would be one example of this.

But I’m thinking especially about the Christian calendar: the annual cycle of feasts and observances that is meant not only for worship gatherings but for Christians to observe at home as well. Many countries with Christian heritages have wonderful customs and traditions related to this calendar such as special cakes for Epiphany, eating by candlelight during Advent, the blessing of the home annually by the parish priest, etc.

We have forgotten in a real sense how to evangelize and socialize our children, grandchildren, godchildren, nieces and nephews into the faith. Somehow we’ve been led to believe that if we can take them to worship – a one hour event- once a week then they will somehow learn to live the Christian life. It takes more than weekly attendance at worship and participation in some educational program to introduce someone to the Christian life, the best way to do that is by experience living that life.

I believe Church leaders, lay and ordained, need to bend over backwards to find ways to encourage the observance of the faith at home. This will usually mean having to teach adults first, who will then teach their children. Some good resources on these topics can be found here from an Evangelical perspective, here from a Catholic perspective, and here from a Protestant perspective.

How can we begin this mammoth task?

(I want to add a disclaimer here: my statements are not meant to be accusatory toward parents. In fact, I think it is people like me who are in large part to blame for this situation, as we --Christian pastors and teachers -- have so often failed to equip families with the tools they need to observe the faith at home).

Does God Attend Church? Re-Thinking Where Faith Should Be Lived, part 4

Killing the Minister

One of the reasons that North American Christians have so frequently limited Christian commitment and faith to church gatherings is because of a concept, a concept I will refer to as “the minister.” In many Christian traditions there is in fact an individual who is referred to as “the minister.” This concept is deadly to a lifestyle sense of Christianity. I am not against the concept of ministers or even a concept of ordained ministers who have a special -- but not better -- role in the Body of Christ (i.e. that is a sacramental role).

What I am against is the concept that the essential ministry and mission of the Church is carried out principally, almost entirely, by one man (Though lately, thankfully, in many mainline denominations we could also say by one woman). Of course, we know this doesn’t literally (usually!) mean one man or woman, but that one person does the significant work while others assist. The rise of specialization in our society in the modern era has not helped this perception either. In age of certifications, advance degrees and specialized training courses, people are often led to believe that they can’t even breathe without having the proper credentials, certifying they have been trained by the experts (whose own breathing status is, in many peoples’ opinion, quite questionable).

Every Christian is called to “minister” in the sense of serving others in Christ’s name; in the sense of advancing the Kingdom of God by how they live and how they refuse to live; in the sense of passing on the faith to the next generation (their kids, but others as well); and so on. Yes, some are called to a particular role that supports this general calling of all Christians, that supports the gathered life of the Church, but the gathering ministers (bishops, priests, pastors, church staff, etc.) must always remember they are in the business of equipping and supporting other Christians for discipleship, ministry and mission in their daily lives. No one person or even special group of persons can accomplish the work of the Body of Christ all by themselves; it’s a team effort, through and through.

Growing up I had an interim pastor who was a strong proponent of the ministry of all Christians, especially the laity. Her notice in the bulletin (more typical now) “Ministers: The People of Saint Peters” was not met with universal acclaim.  Not only is this shift from a ministerial person to a ministerial congregation often difficult for the laity to make, it is also often very difficult for clergy to make (most of us were trained to be lone rangers, see here for example). Both groups of people (and of course many protest at this division to begin with) have been trained to understand the Church’s life in a particular way, but we must ask, is this the Jesus way?

I am not an advocate for the removal of ordained ministry and my reasons are not entirely self-serving, so much as sacramental and Biblical (the priestly people of God need ministerial priests to remind them of who they are, priests are more symbols than mere functionaries, but I digress…for more of that click here, then click on May 22 "A priestly people").

How can we kill the minister and in the process bring life to a ministerial people of God? 

Does God Attend Church? Re-Thinking Where Faith Should Be Lived, part 3

From Services to Service

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we need to shift the principal focus and locus of Christian commitment away from Sunday morning to every morning, to every day, to life itself.  One way of breaking ground in this tough transition from event-based Christianity to lifestyle Christianity is to emphasize that attendance at worship services should lead to personal and familial acts of service. In other words, our worship of our God should lead to living for our God by “loving our neighbors as ourselves.”

 In fact, the basic shape of liturgical worship is organized around this premise.  The congregation – mostly scattered from each other during the week – gathers together to remember who they are,  to acknowledge the divine Other, and to be strengthened for service by Word and sacrament. Traditionally, it is the deacon, who is an icon of servant hood (more on that here), who dismisses with the congregation with a charge to “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.”  Unfortunately, we could, to fit popular attitudes, change the dismissal to something like “Thank God it’s over!” or “See you next Sunday” or “Religious obligation done for this week” etc. 

Communal worship is where God’s people are gathered together and then sent out as individual and familial “lights of the world” into their neighborhoods, schools, and jobs, as well as their family and friendship circles. After a week of living for Christ most of us have had some failures, have taken a hit or two or experienced some amazing moments of grace. It is then high time to return from our scattered lives to be gathered once again as the people of God. This cycle of being gathered and being sent can be found in the life of Jesus and in many the great renewal movements of Church history (As an aside, Dominican spirituality is particularly modeled after this pattern of gathering and sending, contemplation and proclamation).  

What can we do in our worship services to highlight this reality?

-          You will find in some churches the following sign above their exit-ways, “You are now entering the mission field (see here).”  I imagine the effect of this sign depends in large part on the frequency of that congregation’s teaching, witness, and preaching regarding the call to Christian service.

-          There are some congregations that are canceling their regular services one or more times a year to engage in volunteerism and service in their community (see here). I think this is on the right track, though there are some subtle dangers in the cancelling of worship services for other (more?) "worthy causes.”

-          Perhaps a series of testimonies/faith stories from individual congregants that highlight the connection between worship and their service to others throughout the week

What ideas do you have?

Feast of the Ascension

Tomorrow is the feast of the Ascension. The Ascension is traditionally one of the high feast days of the Church year. However, it usually gets very little attention from the average Christian because it usually falls on a weekday. This celebration recalls that after spending forty days with the first Christians after His resurrection, Jesus ascended, that is returned to heaven. The first chapter of the book of Acts records this event and seems to imply that Jesus was literally lifted up into the sky.  Exactly how, being both God and man, Jesus returned to God the Father and the divine realm are mysteries we cannot explain. However, the importance of this event cannot be under estimated for our own lives as Christians.

The Ascension strikes several chords that ring important truths for Christians:

1. The Ascension completed Jesus’ passion further proving His messiah-ship. 

2. The Ascension is also the event through which Jesus’ humanity was taken into heaven, even into the Trinity itself. This is a great mystery, but also a great encouragement for us to know that God did not only create us, but that God understands us from our own human point of view. 

3. The Ascension completes Jesus’ victory over Satan. A victory He won at the cross and through His resurrection.  The final battle remains to be won by Jesus (at the second coming), but through the Cruxification, Resurrection, and Ascension Jesus has already won the war against Satan and “all the spiritual forces of wickedness which rebel against God” (BCP, 302).

Does God Attend Church? Re-Thinking Where Faith Should Be Lived, part 2

From Churchainity to Christianity

Faith is to be principally lived, witnessed to and developed in the context of everyday living. We have made the heretical mistake at times of implying that the heart of Christianity is the gathered Church, and more specifically, worship services. I believe that one of the reasons we see so many people falling away from the Church as they grow older is that for most, church was by and large, just a worship service, with maybe some additional activities added on: Sunday school, youth group, confirmation, and so on.

If a young woman or man grew up with the idea that the extent of their Christian life was attending church on Sunday, it will be relatively easy for them to drop that one hour a week. If they grew up in a nurturing, holistic Christian way of life, it will be harder (though certainly not impossible) for them to part with their faith so easily, because in this case, they are not dropping a Sunday, but a whole way of life.

This sort of talk is often interpreted as blaming parents for the failure of the Church, but that is not (in the vast majority of cases) what I am saying. The fault lies with Church leaders (yes, I include myself here) who have essentially allowed this view of churchainity to continue unchallenged. As church leaders we need to be sounding the bell that the primary domain for faith is life -  principally that part of life that takes place outside of the gathered Church: in the neighborhood, at school, at work, on vacation, whenever and wherever.

Part of this situation is largely no one’s fault, but is a result of a society that has moved beyond Christianity and no longer, as it once did to varying degrees, supported general Christian morals and values (for more on this see here). Christians will not find their faith commended or affirmed by prayers in schools, or Bible readings at public events, or by the morals of popular culture at large. This means we will be a minority and will have to grow more comfortable in being different from other people.  

To be faithful we need to spend far more time wrestling with the implications of Christian faith for living, living in practical and concrete situations by pondering questions like:

“What does it mean for me to be a Christian and a plumber?”
“I’ve got two job offers. Should my faith factor into my decision in anyway?”
“This divorce is a mess, how can I, should I, witness to my faith in the midst of all this?”

“We’re building a new house, how, if at all, should our Christian faith impact this project?”

“Should the home life of a Christian family look any different than the home life of a non-Christian family?”
“There is a controversy in the community over a new city ordinance, how should Christians respond, what if we disagree with each other?”
“What does our faith – Holy Scripture, Holy Tradition – have to say about this topic?”

Are these and similar questions being discussed and explored in depth in our churches? Do we even think such questions are integral parts of Christian discipleship?  

How can we begin to encourage a holistic Christian lifestyle again? 

Does God Attend Church? Re-Thinking Where Faith Should Be Lived, part 1

The Sunday Morning God

Most Christians understand that God has interests that extend beyond Sunday morning. Daily, millions of people around the world invoke the name of God, sometimes in prayer, sometimes on other “sacred” occasions such as after stubbing one’s toe, losing a bet or being pulled over on the highway. Yet, if you were to ask many people what defines or determines Christian commitment they would reply going to church.

As a priest I regularly meet people who seem to believe that Christianity is principally about Sunday. I say this because of the comments I typically hear from folks, “I don’t go to church” , “I know I should start attending church,” “we don’t do the church thing anymore,” “I’m sorry I missed church on Sunday, my dog ate my alarm clock,” etc. Of course, going to church, being the Church, at worship, is very much an important part of the Christian life – but it is not the entirety of that life.

A God who can only be encountered in the gathered community is a God who is absent to the ordinary believer during the rest of the week. Yes, people pray, but often people struggle to find real, deep and meaningful connections to God during their week. Is this because God is limited to gathered times of worship or because we – here meaning generations of Church leaders – have failed to teach people about how to encounter God during the remaining 6 days and 23 hours a week? God is eternally present. God is always seeking to get our attention. So yes, God “attends” church, but God is also available to believers as they jog along the side-walk, or sit at the board room meeting, or argue with a loved one.

How can we as Christians be aware of God’s presence beyond Sunday? How can the gathered church (worship services, Bible studies, social gatherings, etc.) help prepare or encourage Christians to encounter God when they are not together? 

Wanted: Men and Women for Holy Calling

Have you ever thought of becoming a priest? Or do you know a young man or woman who might be interested in the priesthood? I don’t think we spend enough time in our parishes and families asking people to consider whether God may be calling them to the priesthood. There are many reasons for this, not least of which is that many parents would prefer their children do something more significant, more normal, and more lucrative with their lives.

The average age of priests in the Episcopal Church is fifty four years old; in the Roman Catholic Church it is even older.  In recent decades a shift has taken place in vocations to the priesthood, from younger person responding to a life-long calling to older people, pursuing the priesthood after one or more careers in the marketplace. God calls all sorts of people and I am a full supporter of those priests who enter the priesthood later in life, they bring much Christian and worldly experience to the Church and their ministries.

The priesthood is a way of life that places a man or woman in constant contact with both the divine and the human aspects of life. It is an opportunity to be close to holy things, in the formal sense of that word, and an opportunity to be close to the realities of human living, with all their sorrows and joys. Please pray this week for vocations to the priesthood and please consider asking a young man or woman you know to consider the priesthood – I’d be happy to chat with them too. 

Does God Attend Church?: Re-Thinking Where Faith Should Be Lived, intro

Today I am beginning a new blog series entitled, “Does God Attend Church? Re-Thinking Where Faith Should Be Lived.” I believe this topic to be immensely important for all North American Christians to be discussing and thinking about during this in-between time as we shift from being a modern culture to a post-modern culture, from being a Christian society (so-called) to being a post-Christian society. If ordinary Christian folk don’t start talking about this stuff, we’re going to find ourselves in real trouble as a Church within the next decade.

Actually, talking won’t be enough. We’re also going to have to start doing some things, and stop doing some things, and also learn to just be. If you think I’m being dramatic and everything is going to be peachy-keen (thank you Alan for that turn of phrase) you have not been watching the landscape around you carefully.

While it is indeed possible that the Holy Spirit could rustle up a revival out of no-where it is also possible that unless we prepare ourselves for reformation and renewal the North American Church will continue to decline, and I’m not just talking about the institutions related to the North American Church, but the actual Church – people, souls, communities of disciples, and related to all that, the witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ in our society.

This series isn’t meant to be an alarmist sort of thing, but rather an opportunity to engage in some real dialogue about what is the Church, who is the Church, where should the Church be or it to say it differently – who is God, where is God,  what does God ask of His people?

Looking forward to your input, our disagreements, and some fun along the way! 

Did you pack your faith?

A good question to ponder as we get ready for various spring and summer trips, flights, or vacations is, “Have I packed my faith?” I am not referring to the reality -- bemoaned by pastors across denominations -- that in many communities church attendance plummets during the summer months, but something else (yes, I do think you should find a way to worship weekly during the summer, wherever you are, even if you just share some simple prayers and a Bible reading with your friends or family).

The something else is the potential for these trips, flights, and vacations to be spiritual experiences. I picked up a habit as a teenager of making prayer intentions for various trips. Basically, I would go on a trip or a vacation and I would seek an answer to a particular question from God during the trip (“what do you want me to do with my life?” “should I join this group, etc”). This doesn’t mean I spent the whole trip in prayer or reading the Bible either. In fact, I’ve used this prayer intention practice on road trips with college buddies, visits to family, and everything else in between. I have always found an answer and often much more as the result of these prayer intentions by the end of the trip.

I challenge you to try this practice the next time you travel.

New Series Preview

Within the next couple of weeks I will begin a new blog series entitled, "Does God Attend Church? Re-Thinking Where Faith Should Be Lived."

Feel free to post questions or comments related to this upcoming series here.

Stay tuned...

And now for something completely different (click here)

Easter Isn't Over

Easter isn’t over. No, I’m not talking about the left over Easter candy, ham or company you might still have lingering around. I’m talking about Easter itself. Early in its history the Church allotted the fifty days from Resurrection Sunday to Pentecost Sunday as a season dedicated to the celebration of Easter – this season is called Eastertide. As a season of the Church year Eastertide is dedicated to exploring the mystery and meaning of Christ’s resurrection. Furthermore, it is supposed to be a time of special celebration during the worship services of local churches.  Why fifty days though, I mean isn’t that a bit excessive, event Lent is only forty days?

If you and I are anything like the original disciples, we have a slow learning curve when it comes to understanding who Jesus is and what the Christian faith is all about. The fifty days of Easter remind us that we are indeed an Easter people, a Resurrection people, and that without Christ’s life, death, and resurrection we have no salvation. If we only celebrated these central truths of the Christian faith on one Sunday a year we might easily forget them, but fifty days gives even the dullest among us a chance to catch on.

If you haven’t managed to get your Easter cards out yet --don’t worry-- you’ve still got forty seven days to get them done, it’s still Easter after all.

Happy Eastertide!

Easter Homily by Saint John Chrysostom

Let all pious men and all lovers of God rejoice in the splendor of this feast; let the wise servants blissfully enter into the joy of their Lord; let those who have borne the burden of Lent now receive their pay, and those who have toiled since the first hour, let them now receive their due reward; let any who came after the third hour be grateful to join in the feast, and those who may have come after the sixth, let them not be afraid of being too late; for the Lord is gracious and He receives the last even as the first. He gives rest to him who comes on the eleventh hour as well as to him who has toiled since the first: yes, He has pity on the last and He serves the first; He rewards the one and praises the effort.

Come you all: enter into the joy of your Lord. You the first and you the last, receive alike your reward; you rich and you poor, dance together; you sober and you weaklings, celebrate the day; you who have kept the fast and you who have not, rejoice today. The table is richly loaded: enjoy its royal banquet. The calf is a fatted one: let no one go away hungry. All of you enjoy the banquet of faith; all of you receive the riches of his goodness. Let no one grieve over his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed; let no one weep over his sins, for pardon has shone from the grave; let no one fear death, for the death of our Saviour has set us free: He has destroyed it by enduring it, He has despoiled Hades by going down into its kingdom, He has angered it by allowing it to taste of his flesh.

When Isaias foresaw all this, he cried out: "O Hades, you have been angered by encountering Him in the nether world." Hades is angered because frustrated, it is angered because it has been mocked, it is angered because it has been destroyed, it is angered because it has been reduced to naught, it is angered because it is now captive. It seized a body, and, lo! it encountered heaven; it seized the visible, and was overcome by the invisible.

O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? Christ is risen and you are abolished. Christ is risen and the demons are cast down. Christ is risen and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen and life is freed. Christ is risen and the tomb is emptied of the dead: for Christ, being risen from the dead, has become the Leader and Reviver of those who had fallen asleep. To Him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

John Chrysostom was an early church father, Archbishop of Constaintinople, and well known in his time as a preacher and teacher of the Christian Gospel. 

Christian Practices, Part 6 – Giving Generously

The last practice I want to talk about this Lent is the Christian practice of giving. I saved this practice for last for a couple of reasons. First, to understand giving from a Christian perspective requires you look at it through a discipleship grid which includes the five other practices we’ve already talked about (worship, prayer, Bible reading, serving, and spiritual friendships). Second, I have found that for many Christians the handling and use of money is one of the last areas to fall under the Lordship of Christ in their daily lives.

Many non-profit organizations approach giving as a thankful response for a service that one enjoys. Here giving is “doing your part” and is mostly about making an annual membership pledge (churches should be careful not to equate Christian stewardship with this kind of non-profit perspective on giving). Giving from a Christian perspective rests on the reality that everything in creation, including our own lives, are gifts given to us by God. The question of Christian stewardship is not how much will we give, but how much will we keep.

In a broad sense, the practice of giving is about ownership and control. Am I in control of my stuff or is God in control of my stuff? While discussions about tithing and proportional giving are important (see here for a funny video on this subject) Christian giving cannot be reduced to the idea of making a pledge to your church. Giving generously also involves how lightly we hold our possessions, how much stuff we think we need to live well, and how willing are we to respond to need (whether a beggar on the street or a disaster across the world.)

Would you describe yourself as a person who gives generously? What small step toward more generously giving can you take this week? 

Holy Week Challenge

Holy week is an opportunity for you to examine your spiritual life and make any necessary changes in anticipation of Easter.  First and foremost you should consider your relationship with God.

Most of us will find ourselves in one of five places:

1.      It is possible to attend church services for years and never enter into a relationship with God. God is more than a distant being who created the universe and established guidelines for moral living. Christians believe that in Christ we can have a friendship with God that is real and interactive.

2.      It is also possible to drift away from our relationship with God. We may have accepted Christ or followed Him more faithfully in an earlier season of life but we have sense drifted away from Him.

3.      Another possibility is that while we have accepted Christ and have been following Him we have not been making any progress in our faith. In other words, it may be that we have been coasting spiritually.

4.      Another possibility is that we have accepted Christ, have been following Him and have been experiencing growth in our spiritual life. If this is the case Holy Week is a time to give special thanks to God.

5.      One last possibility is that we are uncertain about God and about whether or not we want to be a Christian at all. We may have questions that need answering, difficult experiences we can’t reconcile with the concept of a loving God. If this is the case Holy Week is a time to ask God for guidance, to talk to someone about your questions, and to realize that doubts are part of the spiritual life.

Accepting or Re-Committing to Christ as Lord and Savior

If possible use your own words to admit your sin (you’ve messed up) and that you need God to save you from your sin and guide you in your life.  You can pray aloud or silently in your heart, if you’re not sure what to say you can use this prayer as a guide:

Heavenly Father, thank you that you love the world so much that you sent Jesus to bring us full and free forgiveness and a whole new life. Please forgive me all that I have done to offend you. Send your Holy Spirit into my life and lead me in your ways. Let me live in your forgiveness, purpose, and hope. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Christian Practices, Part 5 -- Spiritual Friendships

Jesus did not work with individuals per se, that is, He always worked with individuals in the context of a community or within a network of friendships. When an individual was isolated from other people of faith Jesus always sought to bring them back into relationship with God’s people. We need each other not only to worship in the corporate sense or to serve together to do good things in the world, but we need each other for Christian, or as I will call it here, spiritual friendship.

Growth into true humanness, which is another way of referring to spiritual development, is largely impossible without spiritual friendships. Friendships, even in the general sense, are one of the great gifts of life. The absence of meaningful friendships is a problem that many people suffer from everyday.

Spiritual friendship includes all of the components of a regular friendship with the additional element of a shared commitment to Jesus Christ. All Christians should have at least two or three believing friends. These spiritual friendships are incredibly important because these friendships will able to support and encourage your faith as it relates to every aspect of your life: family, work, relationships, hobbies, everything. Strong spiritual friendships will hold up your faith when it is weak, will challenge you to think about God in new ways, and will speak truth into your life when you’re getting out of line.

Some people have formal spiritual friends (click here) others simply break new ground in an existing friendship by including Christ in the conversation. Spiritual friendship has been written about extensively throughout Christian history (see here for one perspective), but finds its origins in the concept that as followers of Jesus Christ we are family to one another, brothers and sisters in Christ.

If you don’t have any spiritual friends start looking for some, take your time, go slowly, and ask God to guide you to the right people.

In what ways have your spiritual friends sustained and challenged your faith?

Christian Practices, Part 4 -- Service to Others

Christian life can never be reduced to a “me and Jesus” sort of spirituality because Jesus never gave us such an individualistic and self-centered option. His summary of the Old Testament Law forces us to reckon with the reality that our love for God will be demonstrated in our love for our neighbor (Matthew 22:36-40). This can sound quite respectable until we realize we must love the neighbors we like as well as those we do not. In addition, if our life of corporate worship is to have any integrity we have to live out the songs we sing on Sunday in our actions throughout the week. For most Christians, serving others in Jesus name takes place in two primary environments.  

The first environment being the gathered Church, here every Christian should have some sort of ministry or regular opportunity for service. This could range from ushering, to leading a men’s group, to serving on a parish council, preaching, fixing the toilet, making cupcakes for the youth group, monitoring the church’s investment account, etc. whatever, as long as it is done for others in Christ’s name. For most Christians the gathered Church should NOT be their primary area of service to others.

The second environment for service, and for most Christians the primary environment for service to others, will take place outside of the gathered church, in other words in everyday life, outside of the church building. This means at work, in the neighborhood, in politics, in recreational groups, in every aspect of life outside of the gathered Church. Doing this is not easy and involves learning to make connections between one’s faith and every other aspect of one’s life. Serving beyond the confines of our local church challenges our faith in a number of ways:

1. It challenges us to realize that Christian faith, if it is going to matter, has to impact our daily living.

2. It challenges us to realize that being involved in every activity at Church could actually be a problem, as it prevents one from serving out in the community.

3. It challenges us to get comfortable with serving with non-Christians and with good causes that may be purely secular but are doing good things in our community none the less.

4. It challenges us to realize that ministry and service is not just for the Mother Teresa’s or the preachers of the world, but for all of us.

5. It challenges us to remember that the real work of being a Christian usually takes place outside of official church gatherings and meetings.

So remember to serve at your local church, but also remember to serve beyond your local church.

How has your spiritual life grown as a result of serving others, both at church, and beyond?

Christian Practices, Part 3 – Bible Reading

Often Christians question what God wants them to do, who God wants them to become, and how they should live. I understand this dilemma and the desire to have a “word from the Lord” for one’s life. I’ve felt painfully in need of direction from God many times in my life.

But of course, we do have a Word from the Lord, we do have guidance from God about what to do, who we should become, and how we should live – it’s called the Bible. At this suggestion many Christian balk, roll their eyes, or state with complete honesty, “yeah but I don’t read the Bible” or “I’m not sure about the Bible.” Despite the struggles of some believers with Holy Scripture, it has been the experience and witness of Christians for over 2000 years that God speaks and guides through the pages of the Bible.  

That’s why Christian teachers and pastors, especially in the Protestant Tradition, have so emphasized personal, daily Bible reading. When we refuse to study or read Scripture we are in essence refusing to listen to the voice of God. Yes, learning to read the Bible well takes some effort and practice. Yes, God does not always leap out of the pages of the Bible and speak to us, whether audibly or in our hearts, but none the less God still speaks.

The Bible makes it clear that we are to “Love God” and “love our neighbors” that we are to “go make disciples” and that we are to give “cheerfully” and that we are to talk with our children about the ways of God when we are at “home” and “on the way.”

In other words, the Bible provides us with plenty of guidance about how we should live and the kind of people we should be becoming by the grace of God.

As you seek to become a better student of the Bible here are some things to keep in mind:

1. The difference between academic and spiritual study. Yes, these two forms of study can go together, but for Christians we are primarily seeking to hear from the Spirit of God through the pages of the Bible for our life and the life of others. There are countless stories of men and women going to college and taking an academic course on the Bible which instead of building up their faith actually weakens it. So seek out Bible study opportunities and Bible study materials that have a spiritual focus.

2. If you’re just starting, focus on reading smaller sections a day. There are no bonus points for reading through several chapters a day. The point is engage with the section of the Bible you are reading and to prayerfully consider what God may be saying to you.

3. Don’t only study the Bible by yourself. The Bible is a book meant for a particular people, God’s people. Find a Bible study group to participate in.

4. Get an understanding of the big picture of the Bible, once you understand the major storyline and movements of the Bible understanding smaller sections is much easier (shameless plug here). 

Wherever you are in relation to daily Bible reading don’t give up, keep at it, and dive deeper into the mystery of God’s Word.