A Prayer for Australia

God of vast spaces and many peoples, we ask your blessing upon Australia. Guide and sustain leaders at every level from the Prime Minister, to Premiers of each state, to those leading in their local communities whether civically, culturally, or within your Church. Strengthen bonds between immigrants, native Australians descended from immigrants, as well as indigenous peoples. Guide those preserving Australia’s great natural bounty entrusted to it by creation. Bless every citizen and those eagerly working toward citizenship. Let the world learn more about this great nation and let those who visit it be blessed and share their happy stories of this epic land in many languages across many nations. We pray this through the power of the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Church Unity: What You Can Do

One factor that has long weakened Christian witness is Christian disunity, as manifested in thousands of denominations, conflicts between churches and within churches. In the last century and into our own, there have been considerable strides toward greater visible unity between the various Christian Churches. Many of these gains have taken place at the official level of commissions, bishops meetings, and the like.

These are all very significant and I encourage you to explore the ecumenical efforts within your particular denomination and between denominations (for example in the work of the World Council of Churches). But what can you do to foster greater Christian unity and greater realization of the true “Lord’s Prayer” as found in John 17:21, that we all be one? Here are some simple steps for individuals, small groups, and local churches.

1.     Pray. Pray regularly for Christian unity. Put some teeth on it by praying for friends, family, and co-workers who are members of other Christian Churches. Pray for the other Christian Churches in your community. Have your local church do this on Sundays (that includes the local churches you don’t like).

2.     Connect with other Christians. Whether among your friends, family, co-workers, or neighbors, or wherever, there are other followers of Jesus all around you. They may be Roman Catholic, you may be Methodist. But make a connection on the basis of your shared Christian faith first and foremost and explore tribal differences on a secondary basis.

3.     Think beyond your tribe. Think of the “Church” in your city, county, or region. So much can be done more effectively on a regional level versus the congregational level. Yes, you need to do certain things rooted in your local congregation’s distinctive identity, but there are plenty of things you can do more faithfully and more effectively by partnering with other Christians. NEWS FLASH: You do not need to agree about every matter to partner together for the common good.

4.     Stop bad mouthing other Christians! This is a cancer within the body of Christ. Progressive Christians make their snide remarks about fundamentalists. Conservative Christians make their jabs at liberals. Having been trained in and ministered across the theological and denominational spectrum, I can assure you that every stripe of Christian sub-culture faces this problem. Sadly, it is often taken for granted. In fact, some churches or individuals have made it a point of personal identity and pride to stress how unlike other Christians they are. Praise everything you can about other believers. Stress all the common points you can. When appropriate, share graciously your points of disagreement.

5.     (This is directed particularly to pastors and other church leaders). Think Kingdom increase, not just your local church’s increase. Your interest in people shouldn’t be merely to rack up attendance numbers for your local church. If in the course of your personal witness or church’s outreach ministry individuals become interested in Christianity, but end up attending another church. That is still a “win” in the Kingdom. Care about people and their spiritual well-being more than you care about increasing your membership rolls.

6.     Observe the week for Christian Unity which happens every year from January 18 through January 25.

What else would you suggest? What are you doing? What have you seen done that is faithful and effective in developing visible church unity and witness? (Speaking of denominations are they bad? Click here. Or maybe being non-denominational is the answer? Click here. Finally, know the difference between religion and denomination. Click here.) 

A Prayer for Christian Unity

Almighty God, you prayed that we might be one as you and the Father are one. While united by your Holy Spirit, we often divide ourselves by our own unwilling spirits. We say that we are Roman Catholic or Baptist or whatever the case may be, may we always proclaim that we are Christian first and our denominational tribe second. May we not neglect important matters of disagreement, but even more may we unite together in common witness to our communities and countries.

You are our Lord, instead of bickering with each other or letting areas of disagreement divide us, let us join hands in every way we can. The world needs concrete expressions of your gracious love more than it needs church versions of petty politics and power plays. We are called to witness to a different way of living, a different way of disagreeing and a different way of being human. Let it begin with me, let it begin with my local church, let it begin now, in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Spirituality and Race

In Christianity, discipleship is intimately tied to spirituality. Spirituality is notorious difficult to define, to the point that many people dismiss it as an unhelpful term. Some say that religion is the official teachings, doctrines and structures; whereas, spirituality is the actual living out of the teachings, doctrines, and structures of a given religion in one’s daily life. There are some problems with trying to tease these two apart, but regardless, Christian discipleship involves integrating every aspect of one’s life with one’s faith. We might call this integrated faith, integrated spirituality or integrated discipleship. Then we have to deal with the controversies surrounding the definition of race.

I’m going to side step the controversies for the most part, by simply accepting that sociologically people identify themselves and others by racial, ethnic, and national markers. Often these markers are blurred together and it is, like with religion and spirituality, difficult to tease them apart without problems. However, for women and men seeking to be faithful to Christ and seeking to integrate their faith into every aspect of their lives, what should they do about race? This can be a strange question for white people, who can ignore issues of race because of their privilege; others, do not have this option.

The Biblical tradition embraces a tension between highlighting a particular race and affirming the universal nature of Christian faith. Jesus was a Jew. Understanding Jesus and thus understanding Christianity requires at least an elementary understanding of what it meant to be Jewish in first century Israel. Furthermore, to understand the rest of the New Testament, with its controversies surrounding the inclusion of non-Jews into the faith (Gentiles) requires at least an elementary understanding of what it meant to be a Greek or Roman in the first century Mediterranean world.

This may point toward how Christians should approach the topic of race. They need to be self-reflective about who they are and faithfully engaging the challenges and joys related to who they are, while not becoming so racially oriented that they miss the reality that their confession of faith in Christ makes them one with Christians of many tribes, nations, and languages. This will involve painful listening and partnering by white Christians with their oppressed sisters and brothers. This will involve persistent truth telling and partnering by non-white Christians with their white sisters and brothers.

This is all to abstract, discipleship deals with concrete realities, the messiness of individual lives, and the complexities of societal problems. Racism is a sin. Christianity’s earliest proclamation pointed toward a radical inclusion of people across racial and socio-economic divides: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Despite this early call for radical inclusion and despite the great heritage of Christian movements laboring for racial equality, race remains a problem in our societies and churches.

Your thoughts on race and discipleship?

Sermons: What Are You Listening For?

When is the last time a good friend of yours said, “Let’s listen to a sermon!” It’s probably been a long time, unless it was raised as an alternative to visiting the dentist or proctologist. Even then, at least these doctors do something practical for you. What of the soul doctors of the pulpit? They too offer something practical and of lasting, perhaps even, ever-lasting value. But what exactly is that? What are you listening for in a sermon? Maybe you aren’t really listening at all? The sermon is increasingly a strange beast in our culture of constant on demand content and content that constantly demands our attention.

Our expectation of the sermon, and thus, what we are listening for, are shaped by our experience of vocal communication in the wider culture, but also our own particular understanding of Christianity and often – even if we don’t know it – a particular denomination of tradition’s understanding of the role of preaching. People get annoyed or bored or upset with preachers when their understanding of the sermon’s role is in conflict with the preacher’s or tradition’s understanding of the sermon. There are dozens of ways of classifying sermon types and approaches. Let’s look at five: 

1.     The Sermon as Twitter Account

The sermon is purely the preacher’s opinion. They can use the pulpit to communicate whatever they feel like talking about. It may be informed by the texts assigned for the day, but ultimately it is a vehicle for the preacher to communicate private opinions and experiences on sundry subjects.  

2.     The Sermon as Life Message 

The sermon is a proclamation of the faith rooted in the assigned texts oriented toward the joys and challenges of daily living. The message must be rooted in the assigned texts and general Christian teachings, but the preacher’s job, with God’s help, is to connect text and tradition with daily life.

3.     The Sermon as History Lesson

The sermon is about scholarship. The sermon brings forth the vast riches of academic insight about particular texts and conveys them to the people. The message engages with commentaries, historical accounts, details, and more. The preacher’s job is to educate and sophisticate the congregation.

4.     The Sermon as Monologue

The sermon should be the ecclesiastical version of classic late night monologues. It should be funny, heart-warming, and perhaps have some helpful information or encouragement. The preacher’s job is to connect with the congregation, with emotional catharsis of some kind being a sign of success. 

5.     The Sermon as Social Expose

The sermon’s purpose is to comment on current social controversies. It should be bold and sometimes revolutionary. The Christian Tradition, especially its social justice movements and ideologies, are often the theological anchors of these sermons. The preacher’s job is to challenge and critique.

Each approach contains at least a modicum of truth or a potential purpose to the sermon, but perhaps some for more than others. Philosophical approaches to sermons aside, what sermons listeners often complain about are not content, but delivery and structure. “He’s so boring.” “She has no organization to what she says.” “It goes on and on and on.” “He talks about to many things.” “I can’t hear what she is saying.” Etc. What about you? What are you listening for in a sermon?" 

(Click here if you need an alternative to the dentist or proctologist or here for sermon listening tips)

The Confusion of Calling

This is a reflection and place for dialogue on my sermon and related themes from the second Sunday of Advent, on the Gospel text from Mark 1:1-8. 

“I feel called to become a priest.” This is not unfamiliar language to Christians. For many, it is merely churchy code for, “I want to become a priest.” The problem with this gap in understanding is that Biblically, many people who were called by God, wanted to do anything but answer that call. Moses protested God’s call because he wasn’t a good speaker. The prophet Jeremiah said he was too young. Before his conversion, Paul had been persecuting Christians and the last thing he wanted, one could imagine, was becoming one of them.  The idea of a call has embodied within it the idea that God compels you, urges you or invites you to do something. Yes, you have to respond in the affirmative (as Blessed Mary did), though in the case of the prophet Jonah, sometimes saying no to God is difficult.

Traditionally, an individual’s call must be recognized both by the individual and the community. So it isn’t enough for Jane to say “God is calling me to be a priest. Ordain me already!” The community must also, through a careful process of discernment and prayer, affirm that sense of call. In some cultures and situations, it is actually the community that identifies the individual as having a calling. In most Christian Churches, both the individual and the community must recognize that call in order for the person to be ordained. Also, training requirements vary greatly across denominations, with some Churches emphasizing calling and the equipping power of the Holy Spirit well over training (and thus their training requirements are quite minimal or non-existent) and some Churches emphasizing preparation and professional training over a sense of spiritual call. For most denominations, the actual practice is somewhere in the middle.

Confusing and complicating all of this are questions of “what constitutes a sense of call?” Does it mean a man or woman simply enjoys helping other people? Does it mean that having some mysterious spiritual experience of call is necessary? These are all questions that have been debated and defined over the centuries. A more global concern is whether calling is the special province of clergy. It is not. All Christians receive callings. Indeed, people of no faith or other faiths will often express a sense of calling. The language being less churchy, “I felt this is what I should be doing.” “Things kept leading me to this field.” Even in secular literature and the experience of people who live without explicitly religious faith, many experience a sense of “things they should be doing” or “burdens that came to them” or “life missions.” I always encourage people to find a calling, not just job or a career. For many people, this sense is found in marriage and family life, and less so in their job which helps to support their genuine sense of calling to family life or a particular passion.

What did you hear in the sermon, in the text, or this reflection? What would you challenge, what would you add? What are you still wondering about?  

Keep Awake!

This is a reflection and place for dialogue on my sermon and related themes from the first Sunday of Advent, on the Gospel text from Mark 13:24-37.

This passage, is which is known as the little apocalypse, has inspired much speculation, anxiety, and creative interpretation over the centuries. The Bible has several books or sections of books that feature apocalyptic writing, mostly famously, The Book of Revelation. This genre of Biblical literature deals with difficult subject matter like heaven, hell, judgment, and upheaval of the established order. 

Advent is an apocalyptic season of the Church year. This seems entirely strange and alien to the general spirit of “holiday cheer” going on around us. However, if you have ever seen a group of children tearing into their Christmas presents, with the wrappings flying in the air, and much “weeping and gnashing” of teeth over presents received and not received, you can find plenty of apocalyptic moments in the “most wonderful time of year” (never mind holiday traffic!). 

Advent readings, like Mark 13, put the Christian out of step with the pace of the world. We’re invited to “Keep Awake” and be ready for the return of the Savior, while the world is getting ready for Santa Claus, Christmas cookies and lots of holiday parties --- some with inappropriate drama, some with tippy toe family drama. For some, being awake this time of year is painful, because they are all too aware of what other people have and they do not. 

Mark 13 is a reminder to “Keep Awake,” which suggests, that perhaps many of us are, for all intents and purposes, sleep walking our lives away. It might also suggest that we need spiritual lasik surgery in order to truly see what matters in life. Jesus’ return or our return to Jesus will put everything in our lives in perspective. One woman facing breast cancer put it this way:

“You take a long look at your life and realize that many things that you thought were important before are totally insignificant. That’s probably been the major change in my life. What you do is put things in perspective. You find out that’s like relationships are really the impost things you have -=-- the people you know and your family – everything else is just way down the line. It’s strange that it takes something so serious to make you realize that.”

In a sense, cancer is an unwanted apocalyptic event. It upheaves a life. It brings fear of death and whether from God or a person’s own conscience, brings judgment. This comparison can be pushed too far, but certainly, the idea of Christ’s return or our own return to Christ should carry with it a force that rouses us to reflection and not merely morbid anxiety.

What did you hear in the sermon, in the text, or this reflection? What would you challenge, what would you add? What are you still wondering about?