Lamentations
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Till The Next Goodbye
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs–in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”
All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.” But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning.
No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
Acts 2:1-21
I love Pentecost! I was so excited last night I could hardly sleep. No joke. I felt like I was going to Disneyland or headed out for an exotic vacation. I lay in bed dreaming of all the things the Spirit of God could do in our lives. I prayed that the morning would hurry up and get here so I could drive on over here and be with you all on this day and celebrate our graduation.
You see. I am not your average Presbyterian. I am cut from an evangelical, charismatic cloth. If I had to choose a favorite part of the trinity, I am always going to pick the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is what I believe inhabits my heart and hands, moving me to act on Gods behalf.
You see I am an addict. I am addicted to the Holy Spirit. I love her wild and untamed ways. She is my courage, my hope, and my joy.
I love the Holy Spirit so much I have this gigantic hole in my soul just waiting to be filled by her presence. This Spirit shaped hole has lead me to be baptized three times.
You see I used to believe that one could lose their baptism or anointing as we called it. I got baptized as an infant, just eight months old. As an evangelical, charismatic that baptism did not count, as I was a child. I went to a sunrise service at the beach one Easter and got caught up in the moment and wadded out in to the waters and got dunked.
I wandered away from the church after that and then retuned a few years later and felt I needed to be baptized again. I went to a backyard BBQ at the pastor’s house of the church I was going to. There was a pool there and I talked the pastor in to baptizing me and a few others that wanted to get baptized.
I wandered away from the church again. This time I returned to a mega-church. I wanted to get baptized again. This time I was sure it would stick. I went to a few classes at the church. In the course of this process we all had to meet with the pastor. He was an old, gray man that had a stillness to him. He listened well and made you feel important as you shared your story. I told him of my faith story and how I was baptized before, a few times. He listened intently and nodded at the appropriate times.
Then I paused, smiled, and rested my case. He smiled back. It got quiet, that uncomfortable kind of quiet. I wondered what I had said that was wrong. After that eternal pause he said, “Son, you do not need to be baptized again. You need to get serious.”
I did not get baptized again. I moved on from that church but that pastor’s words have stuck with me. His words shaped in me a hunger for that “serious” he spoke of.
I graduated that day. It was a memorable moment in my faith and one that influences my faith today. It is one of the reasons I love Pentecost so much.
Pentecost is our graduation. With divided tongues of fire resting upon the heads of all gathered there in the upper room and with languages being spoken with natural ease the struggling followers of Jesus the Christ graduated to become “the Church.” Crowds gathered there around this spectacle. Bewildered, amazed, and astonished they stood there wondering what was going on.
I imagine those that graduated that day in to “the church” shared a lot of the same kinds of emotions and thoughts as our graduates here share today. We are surrounded by uncertainty, fear, and the constant desire to be sure. I am not sure how much has changed over the last few years in the worry department. I am sure that the hope that we set out with on this journey has been challenged and changed in to something we could not have imagined.
I am certain that the reality that we hold here today would not have been possible without the momentary realities and grace-filled consequences that we have endured as individuals and as a community. We are a product of the Holy Spirit fueled, Jesus Christ loved, Beloved Creator covered action as we fought to make sense of the world around us.
As we are set to graduate, I pray we remember that the days prior to this are not simply memories. They are lessons and moments that will carry us through the journeys to come. Our time together has forged the relationships of new communities and planted seeds for new relationships that will grow new communities. Today’s graduation is more than an event. It is the proud proclamation of our calling to be Prophetic, Passionate, and to Dream.
We have been amazed and perplexed by the Holy Spirit. We have seen wondrous things. We sit here today trusting that when we were fashioned in our mother’s womb the time needed to fulfill that which we are called to is also provided. We trust that the call to be prophetic comes with the courage to be prophetic. The call to be passionate comes with the faith to be passionate. The call to dream comes with the hope to dream.
This city is in need of prophetic voices. Prophetic voices that call us to more than ethical and moral action. We need prophetic voices that demand progress but not at the sake of our humanity. We need prophetic voices that point to and honor the humanity of all of God’s creation. We need prophetic voices that preserve the full humanity of ALL. We need prophetic voices that preach the Gospel, without using words.
This nation is in need of passionate voices. Passionate voices that demand relationship over production and consumption. We need passionate voices that call attention to the injustice preventing others from equality, even at the cost of their own freedom. We need passionate voices that inspire, recharge, and renew the tired and relenting hearts of liberty. We need passionate voices that practice non-violence in the face of this nations violent ways. We need passionate voices that love their neighbors as they love themselves.
This world is in need of dreaming voices. Dreaming voices that can see the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. We need dreaming voices that bridge the coming kingdom to our NOW. We need dreaming voices that dare challenge the reality that invades our minds, our hearts, our wills with fear, intolerance, and hate. We need dreaming voices that reframe the fear, intolerance, and hate with faith, affirmation, and love. We need dreaming voices that stand in the face of hopelessness and show us a way to The Promised Land. We need dreaming voices that speak the dreams of their mothers and fathers as they work to realize the dreams of many. We need dreaming voices that paint a divine beauty upon the ugly truth of this world.
We are called to be prophetic, passionate, and to dream. This is the good news of Jesus Christ. This is the gospel. It is our calling, no matter our vocation, our condition, or our confidence. We all are called to minister in this manner. Better yet, we have permission to be prophetic, passionate, and to dream!
I was at a conference this last week. It was a gathering of 64 people, men women, and children. We gathered there to ask difficult questions of our faith and to try to arrive at new ways of being church. We have done this for three years now. We have no budget. Everyone pays their own way. Those with much help out those with little. It is a little piece of the Kingdom of God.
We talked a lot about bivocational ministry there. We lamented that many of our colleagues are forced to take “real” jobs in order to serve as minister in a growing number of churches. We lamented that bivocational ministry is almost seen as a punishment from some folks in the church.
There was plenty of lament going on. The hope that the conversation began with seemingly disappeared. Than someone spoke up and said, “Our congregations have always been bivocational.” The wind left the conversation and truth set in.
Every week full time, part time, tent making, and itinerate pastors everywhere serve congregations full of bivocational ministers.
I am looking at a room full of bivocational ministers right now. You all work a full week and come here to work some more. Bivocational ministry is not a punishment; it is the reality to which the pews have known for many years. By our baptism we are ordained to bivocational ministry. By our baptism we are called to be prophetic, passionate, and to dream. This is two baptisms, one by water and the other by fire.
Here we are. Ready to celebrate the baptism by fire. Every year we get to honor this tradition of being called to ministry. This is the day in which we all have been baptized and called to ministry. This is the day that we are amazed and perplexed by the Holy Spirit. This is the day we are given permission to be prophetic, passionate, and to dream.
This city is in need of prophetic voices.
This nation is in need of passionate voices.
This world is in need of dreaming voices.
“God declares, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”
Sunday Mornin’ Worship as an Idol
One of my favorite songs is “Sunday Morning Coming Down.” I can’t tell you how true that first verse of the song has been for me in time past. The song goes on to share with us a day in the life of someone that does not include the inside of a church on Sunday. This person narrates their life and what they see as they walk off a hangover and try to shake that alone feeling brought on by it being Sunday morning.
Since about Easter 2002 I have attended Sunday worship almost every weekend. After a quick calculation there have been over 500 Sundays this last decade. I may have missed about 100 of them. So, in the lamb’s book of life I probably got a “B.” I am cool with a “B.” That’s passing, right?
My point is that I have been to and lead a lot of Sunday Worship. In my role as a minister I have been part of many special worship services as well. I have worshipped in foreign countries, delivered impromptu sermons on top of half build damns, and broken bread and celebrated the Table in the dark with grape juice and a stale bread roll.
I am also a huge fan of beautiful liturgy that is fabulously performed by well-practiced presiders and liturgists. I love the beauty and pageantry of rite and ritual that connects yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I was trained by the late, great Reverend Dr. Stanley Robertson Hall to be an innovator as I stood on the shoulders of those saints that came before me. It was impressed upon me that beauty matters in worship. Beauty matters in worship, as it is a reminder of the goodness of God.
It seems ever since I have become part of church leadership there have been conversations in conference rooms everywhere about how to get younger folks in to the pews of the church. This conversation has reached beyond city, State, denomination, and congregational size. This conversation “how to get youth in to the pews”, is at the root and desire of so many in the church.
Contemporary worship, removal of pews, evening service times, and a tiding up or liberation of orthodoxy have all been offered as solutions to this dilemma. I personally have spent years trying to “reframe” the question of “How do we get young folks in the pews?” to “How do we connect and build relationships with young folks?” There have been wonderful success stories about congregations letting go and supporting younger leaders as they set out to be the church in today’s context.
These faith communities become beacons in the night to others that hunger for change. Unfortunately, I have seen more horror stories of congregations holding on to power and hope that the church of yesterday will indeed return and desperately act to get young folks in to church roles in the same fashion tires are rotated on a car.
For me the tire rotation church model is ugly. There is no beauty for me in car maintenance. I am not in denial that maintenance of ones vehicle is not important. It is. Just ask those that call up Click and Clack every week.
I am not in to being treated like a part on a car. I want to be engaged as a part of the car. I want shared importance. I want my gifts to be realized and share them with my community. I want worship to engage me and feed me. I want worship that reflects the value I find in Gods fearfully and wonderfully made world.
In most of the 400 or so Sunday worship service I have attended in the last decade I have not felt engaged on any level. In fact, I attended most of them as an obligation to someone or something. I am not saying I have been left with a massive void in the wake of Sunday worship. I am saying that Sunday worship does not speak to me. That is the honest truth. I am a minster and have lead worship in a spiritually dry way.
In my experience the conversations about connecting, growing, or being in relationship with young folks is varied and dynamic. There is one idol that has always been held on to, Sunday worship. We dare not give up Sunday worship as a church. Without Sunday worship we would all stagger around the streets Sunday morning, shaking off hangovers and wearing dirty shirts.
I wonder if Sunday morning worship has not become an idol too big to succeed. I know a lot of folks will push back on me and I fully expect that. I am at a point n my faith that I am willing to let it all go. I am willing to let go of Sunday worship as a defining part of my Christianity.
Imagine a church that gathers as a flash mob in public and performs acts of celebration, mourning, joy, service, and organized for these events in our homes and in public space. We are transparent, welcoming, collaborative, diverse, and decentralized. It is everything the church seems to not be these days. But this idea will never work in a system that delivers highest praise to a static geography of Sunday worship.
Too many Millennials and Gen Xers work erratic schedules or are engaged in the community in other ways that demand their attention. The church has insisted that in order to belong to the Body one must at the very least show up on Sunday and a few other staggered events on the church grounds. When will the church, the gospel, the Christ be liberated in to the fluid moving of the Spirit we witness at Pentecost in Acts?
I am ready and willing to let go of the idol of Sunday worship. I am ready for a new truth, a truth that shall set me free. As one of my favorite artists Fritz Scholder famously said, It ain’t ugly if it’s the truth.” And the truth is, it’s time for a new beauty to arrive.
Liberation in A Massage Parlor
This morning I went with my wife to get a massage as part of her last days of her twenties. She will turn thirty tomorrow. It was not one of those couple’s massages. I am not against those, it is just I wanted my wife to have her own thing.
We went to a national chain and were greeted with a marvelous deal. We endured the mild pressure tactics to supersize our experience with momentary and fleeting deals. It was almost like being on Deal or No Deal. We managed to escape in to the calmly lit relaxation waiting room. There were comfy sofas and a large plasma TV acting like a digital fish tank full of exotic fish.
My wife is called back first and than me. I go back to my room and take off my shoes and t-shirt. I lay on my stomach and the massage begins. My masseuse engages in a bit of small talk. “How are you today?” “Is this your first massage?” “What do you do for a living?”
I answered the first two questions honestly and with no haste. I wavered on the third. I thought do I really want her to know what I do? I weighed my options and calculated the risk and answered. I answered, “I am a minister.” I was fully hoping that would shut down all conversation and I could get in to the relaxing part of the massage.
It got quiet after my response. A couple of minutes passed by and I hear her say, “May I ask you a question.” If you know me you know I love to talk to people. I rarely turn down a conversation. Better yet meeting new people and holding court is my favorite pastime. So without hesitation I respond, “Sure. Go ahead.”
She asks me, “What do you think about Revelation? Are we in the end times?” BAM! I was floored by her question. So long relaxing moment. Hello, Mr. Lecture. I asked her if she wanted my opinion, beliefs, or what the church taught about it? She said, “I guess I want your opinion.”
I shared with her my past engagement of Revelation as a Conservative, Fundamentalist, Evangelical, and Charismatic Christian and how I literally interpreted scripture and sought to live it out militantly. Back then Revelation scared me and fashioned me in to a sin counting zealot responsible for everyone’s sins and had to “save” as many folks as I could to do right by God.
Then I told her how I see Revelation now. A book that describes a particular moment in time describing the horrors of Nero and the hoped destruction that would befall him and the empire he represented. I no longer felt responsible for everyone’s sin. Rather, I held on to the idea of corporate sin and worked to fight injustice and build relationships with a diversity of people.
She was sort of taken back by my answer. She inquired as to what sort of religion I practiced. I told her I was Christian, like her. She did not care for that much. She started in with an Apologetics trajectory. It brought me back to those days when I argued for people’s souls, wrapped with my Sword (my Bible), and cloaked in the unrelenting truth of God. I tensed up.
She shared with me her story. She had lived a tough life and found peace and salvation in Jesus. She left her spouse in Las Vegas to return to Oklahoma and that peace that God was calling her to.
I listened to her seeking to affirm her. She weaved in to her story solid truths and started to pick what I shared with her apart. She then blatantly offered I am not sure what you believe but I know it’s not the Christianity that I follow.
I tried to counter with, “There is room for many ways of being faithful in my understanding of God.” Then I offered up the story of the blind men and the elephant. The blind men focusing on their particular experience with the elephant in their declaration of what an elephant is. They were unaware that they all shared a particular glimpse base in their particular experience with the elephant that when shared together offered the vision of the whole. She would have nothing to do with it. She rejected my story as sounding Buddhist. She was Christian and not letting the devil tempt her with that sinful knowledge.
I lay there quiet, trying to relax. She struggled with words but she maintained the massage. She seemed to channel her frustration in to the knots on my back. I was not hurting; it actually was a good massage.
I remained quiet, determined to enjoy the waning portion of this experience. I was quiet for sometime and hoped she would be too. She returned to Revelation and what she thought about it. She expressed her desire to one day be a missionary and go to the “Third World” to save folks for Jesus. I did not want to challenge her paradigm any more. I just listened.
She went on for about ten minutes. I lay there and listened, trying to fill my peace. As I did I noticed in her words courage and a sense of daring. She and I were really saying the same thing but could not agree on the definitions, let alone the parameters of conversation. I would offer something and she would counter me with her perspective, unable to hear what I was saying.
I did the same to her. I heard the Conservative, Fundamentalist, Evangelical, Charismatic Christian buzzwords and I shut down. I was not really listening to her. I was trying to figure out how to “fix” her. I pitied her and her backwards, folky ways and beliefs. I thought myself to be better than here, more educated. I felt as if I was beyond this poor, simple woman’s capability to understand who God really is.
I really started to listen and not figure out a way to change her. As I listened this time her words sounded much like Gustavo Gutiérrez. She did not say the words “preferential option for the poor” but she spoke of it in her experiences and hopes for herself in the hyperpatriarcal religious world she was in. Her words begged for liberation. Her hopes called for justice.
I listened to her and when there was a silence I asked her if she liked to read. She said she did and was always looing for a good book to read. I told her about Gustavo Gutiérrez and my favorite book of his “The God of Life.” I gave her a quick synopsis of it and tried to relate what she had been saying to what I felt the book was speak to. She did not say a word.
The hour had passed my knots were sufficiently undone. Her “healing hands” had blessed me with health. I put on my shoes and t-shirt and proceeded to leave. She stopped me with a pen and asked me to spell the name of the book I spoke of and the name of the author. She wrote it down on the prescription she was supposed to give to me for the front desk.
We settled our debt and left. I sort of chuckled when my wife asked me if it was relaxing. I told her my masseuse and I talked theology the entire time. My wife smiled and said, “Only you would go to get a massage and turn it in to an opportunity to talk about God.” Yup, I learn a lot about God from everyone I met.
My Body is a Cage
As my Abba has loved me, so I have loved you. Live on in my love. And you will live on in my love if you keep my commandments, just as I live on in Abba God’s love and have kept God’s commandments. I tell you all this that my joy may be yours, and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love that to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. And you are my friend, if you do what I command you. I no longer speak of you as subordinates, because a subordinate doesn’t know a superiors business. Instead I call you friends, because I have made know to you everything I have learned from Abba God. It was not you who chose me; it was I who chose you to go forth and bear fruit. Your fruit must endure, so that whatever you ask of Abba God in my name God will give you. This command I give you: that you love one another. If you find that the world hates you, remember that it hated me before you. If you belong to the world, the world would love as its own; but the reason it hates you is that you don’t belong to the world – because I chose you out of the world. John 15:9-17
“Love one another as I have loved you.” Love. Now, that’s a tricky word these days. The word seems to get tossed around often these days. Love is plastered on reality TV promising us a glimpse of what real love is. Love is evoked in the strangest places. Love has become a marketing tool, a way to divide a nation.
This past Tuesday love again was on the ballot, this time in North Carolina. The voters of North Carolina decided to protect or revoke the rights of a group of people. All based on a particular understanding of love.
Many of the proponents of the amendment are good, honest people of faith, as are many of the opponents, good honest people of faith. You have both sides decked in righteousness, seeking to steer the State towards a vision of God’s glory, both holding fast to love.
“Love one another as I have loved you.” On the surface the love at hand here is simple and plain to see. I am not going to tackle the complexity of what the Bible does or does not say about same-sex marriage here today. I’ll leave that for another day. I want to talk about civil rights and what this passage speaks to us today about “laying our life down for our friends.”
This last week North Carolina outlawed any love that does not fit within the defined space labeled “traditional marriage.” In North Carolina this means that only relationships between a man and a woman that are married are valid. The last time North Carolina changed its constitution in regards to marriage was to outlaw interracial marriage.
Something else happened this past week, President Obama said, “I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together; when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”
The President continued, “You know when I go to college campuses, sometimes I talk to college Republicans who think that I have terrible policies on the economy, on foreign policy, but are very clear that when it comes to same-sex equality or, you know, sexual orientation, that they believe in equality. They are much more comfortable with it.”
President Obama offers that his opinion on Marriage Equality has “evolved.” He has built relationships with people involved in same-sex partnerships and has reflected upon the rights bestowed to those of us that are allowed to marry. These are some of the things that President Obama cites as part of his evolution. His faith has also evolved “…we are practicing Christians and obviously this position may be considered to put us at odds with the views of others but, you know, when we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is, not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it’s also the Golden Rule, you know, treat others the way you would want to be treated…”
“Love one another as I have loved you.” President Obama evokes part of todays verse in his statement about his evolving faith and opinion in regards to marriage equality. In evoking this divine command from John President Obama has taken a risk. He is locked in a race for reelection and his critics and opponents just got some new ammunition against him in this war for the White House.
The nation has erupted. There are numerous features, articles, and letters to the editor engaging what many have labeled, “The Schism in the Black Church.” In one article in The Los Angeles Times titled, “Complexity in Black Church Reaction to Obama’s Gay Marriage Announcement” the paper interviewed Black pastors of black church’s and received many responses. They vary from support to opposition to support of Obama and rejection of his call to Marriage Equality.
This article begins with the story of Dr. King and Billy Graham. Dr. King was set to join Billy Graham at one of his massive crusades. All he asked was that Billy Graham would speak out publically against segregation. Billy Graham would not do it, out of fear of losing his constituents and support. Billy Graham kept quiet. Billy missed out of an opportunity to love others as God had loved him.
“…love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love that to lay down one’s life for one’s friends…It was not you who chose me; it was I who chose you to go forth and bear fruit…If you find that the world hates you, remember that it hated me before you. If you belong to the world, the world would love as its own; but the reason it hates you is that you don’t belong to the world – because I chose you out of the world.” It is not a popular choice to stand against the majority to point to its injustice. Marriage equality is not a matter of spiritual righteousness as much as it is a matter of loving our neighbor and risking the world’s hatred upon us.
Today another southern preacher sacrificed his support to embrace an affirming position for marriage equality. Jay Bakker, the son of Jim and Tammy Faye, the founders of PTL and pioneers of Televangelism, lost everything when he spoke out against the denying of civil rights to the Gay and Lesbian community.
Jay felt a deep conviction to stand with those being marginalized and denied civil rights due to who they are. For this, Jay was dropped like a hot potato and discovered the depth of love he had from those that had sought to prop him up. Jay ignored the popular voice in order to embrace the opportunity to love others as God had loved him and his family.
This is not an issue of higher righteousness. Constitutional Amendments are not to be used to limit the rights of anyone. Amendments are used to correct the wrongs of the past and to expand the protection of individuals unjustly persecuted by the majority. The wrath of the many shielded by justice in those inalienable rights we all are imbued with by our Creator.
This call to love one another is not a call to agree on everything. This call to love one another is not a call to settle down with like minded folks and talk about “those” people over there. This call to love one another IS a call to love. Jesus breaks that down further; “there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
We are being called to risk our lives to love our friends. Now, this is not “friends” in the way we like to think about it. In this verse Jesus is connecting “friend” translated from the Greek Philos (to love) to the action of Jesus loving us. Friends as Jesus is using it, calls us to Jesus’ friends and not ours. The “one’s friends” includes those that Jesus has welcomed. This friendship is not contingent upon our likes & dislikes or our values and beliefs. This call to friendship is a call to love all of humanity.
We as the church are to love Jesus’ friends. In this we are called to preserve the full humanity of every being. This is why the fight for civil rights mattered 50 years ago and this is why civil rights matter today. We live in a culture in which many folks have been segregated according to the ideas of another. We live in a nation where the civil rights of some have been robbed to secure the rights of others.
In the eyes of Jesus the trampling of anyone civil rights does not bring justice for anyone. That means justice cannot exist in the light of injustice towards anyone. This is Jesus leaving the 99 to find the 1. If just one is left behind then the love of God is not at its fullest. Every being matters. Humanity is at its fullest when all of humanity is preserved.
The church ought to preserve the full humanity of every being. Is this not the core of the gospel? That God loves all of Gods creation and we are called to emulate that love. We emulate Jesus in relationship with others. We are called to preserve the humanity, the full humanity of ALL.
Do I get to reject the obligation of preserving others full humanity so that I may assert my Biblical understanding over others? When faced with a dilemma, a crisis of faith, then should not the humanity of others rise to the top and love reign? A preferential option of love.
We do not have to agree with the ideas and opinions of someone to preserve their full humanity. We are called to remember to whom we belong as we set out to love. We have not chosen God. God has chosen us and set us apart to live in a manner that preserves the full humanity of ALL. This is what laying down one’s life for the other means. We seek to preserve the full humanity of ALL in the face of adversity.
We are called to follow the love-based command into certain death. As Christ laid down his life for us, to preserve our full humanity we are to emulate this action in laying down our life for others to preserve their full humanity. To love one another is an inclusive love, free from our beliefs and based in the divine call to love as we have been loved. It is the call to pick up our cross and follow Jesus to death to our self that others shall live. And Jesus said, “…love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love that to lay down one’s life for one’s friends…”
Jeremiah
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Unlock and Imagine a church
The Gospel is much like the art that Lucas creates. Lucas seeks to engage and transform the environment around him as he challenges, connects, explores, and comments on what he experiences.
Lucas calls us to view the world from a lens that is honest with what and how we experience security. The Gospel calls us to do the same. The Gospel calls us to witness the world around us with different eyes and in different ways. The Gospel does not physically transform the world at first glance. The Gospel moves us as it challenges, connects, explores, and comments on what we experience and how we manifest the creativity we are imbued with.
The Gospel demands we reframe the way we engage Pressure and Manipulation. Pressure is no longer a weapon but a source for transformation. It becomes a way to call attention to injustice and aid the Other. Manipulation ceases to bring guilt and shame to the world. Manipulation in the Gospel sense overs a truth and guidance through the murky waters of human sin.
Now imagine a faith community that challenges the way we live. It demands that we become aware of the choices that we make, seemingly unaware of the connectivity to which we already hold. This faith community connects us to the reality that is already present. The faith community nurses us to health by awakening us to that newness that is offered in relationship with the Christ, which connects us to the Creator.
This is the faith community to which I desire. I hunger for that place that unlocks mystery for the pleasure of being in the mystery. I want to be part of a faith community that connects me to those deep, meaningful moments that happen to us. I want to be part of a faith community that explores the beauty of creation that surrounds us. I want to be a part of a faith community that comments upon the injustice in action to secure justice for ALL. In this, I want to be a part of a faith community that transforms as it unlocks the responsibility I hold to you, to ALL as I am awakened to the deeper self, the Other.
I want to be a part of a faith community that places security in the hands of God and demands that I arrive as I am and loves me enough to not let me stay that way. This is my hope and pray for the PC(USA). The question becomes, can the Presbyterian Church (USA) let go of the fear and hold on to the hope that exists in beyond tradition, emergence, missional, and transformation? Let not our eyes focus upon the finger and miss out on all the heavenly glory.
