Friday, October 31, 2014

Saints Among Us

Today is Halloween or, as it used to be known, All Hallows’ Eve. 


It’s the eve of All Saints' Day -- the traditional time of year for us to remember and celebrate the saints in our lives. Who are these saints we celebrate? As my dad noted in a sermon he preached one All Saints’ Day, you “[m]ention the word ‘saint’ and usually it conjures up a picture of a not-quite-human figure in stained glass or carved in marble representing the type of person we have never seen and certainly never expect to be – a human being oozing spirituality, practically perfect in every way, incapable of sin.” Dad was convinced, though, that we need to take a broader view when we think of saints:

“Basically, as I see it, Christians fall into two categories: First, there are those who recognize their sinfulness and accept it. For them, the Gospel is the Good News that they can come again and again to the Cross and have their slate wiped clean. They never expect to get any better; just periodically cleansed.

Second, there are those Christians who recognize their sinfulness but do not accept it as inevitable. Oh, they know that they will always sin, but they also believe that God does more than forgive; God renews and empowers them toward greater and greater righteousness. They see the Christian life not just as a periodic cleansing, but also a moving on, a becoming more that they once were – all by the power of God working in them. This later group knows God not just as forgiver, but also as a provider of power. They don’t just accept what they are. No! Until the day they die they struggle toward Christlikeness. When folks look at them, they don’t want them to see human sin; they want them to see the power and love of God forming a new creation in them.

People like this – ‘saints’ if you will – like to spend time with each other. … They get together because they must. It’s not an option. These folks know that the power for Christian growth lies not in hearing true doctrine or sound teaching, as important as those are. Strength to journey on in the Christian life doesn’t depend on great sacred music. Progress in the Christian pilgrimage doesn’t require a silver-tongued preacher or a captivating teacher. None of these are necessary. But what is required is encountering and sharing with other persons who have Christ living in them – the ‘communion of the saints.’

The Church can have the worst choir in the world and Sunday school teachers who bore you to tears. Its paint may be peeling and its preacher may get tongue-tied. But if it has just two or three people who really believe Christ is alive in them, it can be more of a church to you than the one that is polished and professional, but hasn’t the slightest idea that people really can be saints, full of God’s power.

What good is it to know that Jesus stilled a storm on the Sea of Galilee, if there is not someone here right now who can testify that Jesus recently stilled a raging storm in his/her life? What good is it to know that Jesus cast the demons out of a man, if there is not someone among us who knows what it means to be freed from the demonic forces that you and I are prone to?

[When I think of my growth in the Christian faith,] what I remember is not the sermons or anthems I’ve heard, not the Sunday school lessons I sat through, not the films I watched, the campfires I sat around, the retreats I attended, or the tens of thousands of prayers I closed my eyes for. What I remember, and what impressed me most was the Rev. Dr. Ehrhart, and how he used to cry when he preached because he so strongly believed what he was saying; skinny old Mrs. Graver, one of my early Sunday school teachers, whose faithfulness far outshone her effectiveness; Mr. Lloyd Lefever, a farmer, who taught us senior high boys with obvious sincerity; the Rev. Dr. Peiffer who took a personal interest in me and encouraged me to pursue the ministry; a mother and father who each in their own way encouraged and affirmed me; a loving wife who receives so little and gives so much; and many others in every church I’ve been privileged to serve.

If you ask me how I know about the power of God and how it can work in a human being, I can do nothing more than point to these people – the ‘communion of saints’ as I have known it, as it has touched me.  The saints aren’t in stained glass windows, and the saints aren’t always perfect, but once in a while – and especially when they’re together – the Son-light shines through and you know, you just know, that God is there.”

So, who are the saints in your life? Who are the people -- past and present -- who make God real for you? This is the perfect weekend to thank them, and to thank God for them. Happy All Saints’ Day, my friends!

From “The Communion of the Saints”
Scripture: Ephesians 1:11-23

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Make the Church Together

I enjoy keeping up with the latest news, but I completely understand my wife’s desire to avoid it. All too often the news – whether international, national or local – overflows with accounts of darkness, death and despair. Just last Friday, for instance, came word of yet another school shooting – this one in the state of Washington.  Three teens, including the shooter, died. Two others were hospitalized. Another community would be haunted by questions that had no easy answers.

Flipping through some of my father’s sermons last night, I came upon one that reminded me that we're hardly the first generation to deal with horrible events like these. In 1985, a 25 year-old woman suffering from mental illness went on a shooting rampage at a shopping mall in Springfield, Delaware County, PA – less than 15 miles from my father’s church.  The shooting left three dead – including a two year-old boy – and seven wounded. As my dad stood in the pulpit a few weeks later, he passed along a story that he heard in the wake of the tragic events of that day at the Springfield Mall. It’s a story about the very nature of Christ’s Church – a story of how we all make the Church together. Here’s what he said:

Bruce Hazelwood, the pastor of Covenant United Methodist Church in Springfield, told a small group of us pastors the other day of a powerful event that grew out of the aftermath of the tragic shooting several weeks ago at the Springfield Mall. Dr. Trout, who was critically wounded in that shooting, is a member of Bruce’s congregation. [A]s his pastor, Bruce was at the hospital soon after Dr. Trout and the other victims were brought in. Killed in that sad event, you remember, was Recife Cosman – a little boy from Chester who with his family are from one of our United Methodist Churches in Chester. The Cosmans’ pastor was also there at the hospital, of course, attempting to bring support and comfort to this family in this time of the sudden, senseless, and overwhelming loss of their little son.

After things settled down a bit and all the emergency medical needs had been attended to, the hospital provided the families and pastors with a room in which to gather. Many hospital staff members also were there, for they too had been deeply affected by this terrible event.

As the pastor from Chester read words of comfort, Bruce said he looked around and realized what an amazing sight he was privy to. The room in which these people had crowded to seek comfort from God and each other was the lounge of the maternity unit; all of its decorations and appointments spoke of new life. There was a white nurse holding a black baby, and persons of every age, professional people, laborers, and the unemployed. Black and white from Chester and from Springfield, holding one another, acknowledging in that moment their need of one another, and their need of God. The diversity and the unity in the setting of that maternity lounge was a powerful witness.

Bruce said that in that moment there was etched in his mind this model of what the Church really is – a gathering of diverse persons from every age and station and walk in life, persons bound to one another in mutual love and support, bound together by the Lord in whom they find their common ground, while the earth trembles beneath their feet, and all of this taking place within the context of a promise of new life and hope for those who will continue to make the Church together.

From "Make the Church Together"
Acts 6:1-7; Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-16

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Puppies, Pet Rocks & Guilt Bags

Dorry and I recently got a new pet ... an adorable puppy named Sparky. His mother is a beagle-basset hound mix. The dad left town before his breed could be identified. The result of their fling was a litter that included this very cute and rambunctious mutt that just loves the attention he gets from Dorry:

Dorry with Sparky
A funny thing happens, though, when Dorry leaves the house without Sparky. Perhaps it's separation anxiety, but Sparky sometimes goes berserk when Dorry is out of his sight. If he's not on a leash, he runs around in a frenzied panic. If he is on a leash, he'll jump high in the air and do everything he can to try to wrestle his way free from the person on the other end of the line -- i.e., me. Don't get me wrong. I love this dog and am very glad he is ours, but there have been a few fleeting moments when Sparky leaves me pining for a pet rock.

Did you ever have a pet rock? They were a phenomenon in the 1970's, and you still can buy one today. Unlike Sparky, your pet rock can be taught easily to obey commands such as "sit" and "stay." "Roll over" is another matter altogether.

To my surprise, Dad once gave a "shout out" to the pet rock fad in a sermon that also mentioned another piece of 1970's marketing genius: the guilt bag. What followed was perhaps one of the best explanations I've ever read of the concepts of forgiveness and repentance:

"A few years ago, in the era of pet rocks, another novel product on the market was a packet of 'guilt bags.'  These were nothing more than brown paper bags with the words 'guilt bag' printed on them. The instructions that came with these bags told the conscience-burdened user to blow all his guilt into the bag, close it up and throw it away. This would bring immediate relief. Now admittedly, this product was a gag, a joke, but I wonder how funny it would be if  it did not strike a responsive chord of need in our lives. This product sold like hotcakes as people tried to mask their longing to be free from guilt in the disguise of humor. How sad!"

"I doubt whether any of us can fully comprehend the enormity and the countless manifestations of this drive of persons in our society to make themselves clean and free of guilt. ... Of course, there is neurotic, unhealthy guilt that we don't deserve to have. In such a case, we need to be made to feel not guilty. But all too commonly there is healthy guilt in us, guilt that is there because we are guilty, having messed up our lives and the lives of others. This guilt is to the spirit what pain is to the body -- a warning signal that something is wrong. God put it there to poke and prod us until we make things right with God." 

"How then is this guilt directly, effectively, and permanently purged from our lives? What is the cleansing agent, the means or device that we use? ... It is important to begin by realizing that ultimately all sin is against God. The Bible makes clear again and again that sin against our brother and against ourselves is a violation of the image of God in the human person, and thus is a sin against God. And so, because it is God whose will and purpose we offend, it is only God who can do anything about it. It is only God who can say, 'You are forgiven' and make it stick."

"Wouldn't it be wonderful if [there were] a way for you to be forever free from the crippling effects of guilt, a way to rid yourself of the need for all your escapes and rationalizations? We proclaim ... that God has provided just such a way in God's son, Jesus Christ. Just as on the Day of Atonement ancient Jews would symbolically lay all of their iniquity onto the scapegoat and then drive it into the wilderness, so God once and for all has laid our sin upon his Son." As Paul put it in 2 Corinthians 5:21, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."  "The Cross of  Jesus Christ, the forgiving love of God, is the only way in which we can be truly cleansed and set free from our guilt. God has done his part to show us how much he loves us and wants to forgive us, fully and forever."

"But this is as far as God can go. We cannot be forgiven unless we want it, unless we accept it. The New Testament Greek word for our response is 'metanoia' - repentance.  This is not simply feeling sorry from our sin, but actually turning from it, renouncing the guilt-infested life through the power that comes from God's love and forgiveness."

"How often we stop short of this response of repentance, unable to turn away from our old life, miserable though it is. The familiar holds us. Self-sufficiency paralyzes us. We get stuck in the status quo. These keep us from reaching out in faith and grasping hold of the wonderful thing God has done for us in Christ. But here, today, is an opportunity to let God deal with your guilt as only God can. Here is a way to break loose from all of those temporary escapes and false ways we have of feeling better. Here is new life. Take it; it's for you from God with love!"

From: "A Man Should Die"
Scripture: John 11:45-53

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Spotting A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing

This morning, when I walked through the parking garage from my car toward my office, I came upon the garage attendant, Gerald, who greeted me with his typical, friendly “hello.” We shook hands and exchanged pleasantries. Then his expression suddenly turned serious. He asked, “Did you see that Jean-Claude Duvalier died?” “Yeah, I read his obituary in the newspaper yesterday.”

I remembered from the obituary that Duvalier had lived a lavish lifestyle while ruling the desperately poor nation of Haiti through the 1970s and into the 1980s. His army enforced the will of a brutal regime. He held hundreds of political prisoners in horrible jails and squelched dissent by closing down independent newspapers and radio stations. He eventually was exiled to France, and, most recently, he had been charged by a Haitian court with human rights abuses and large-scale corruption. But why was Gerald so interested in the death of this former dictator?

Gerald explained: “I met him when I was a kid in Haiti. I didn’t know it was him. It was around Christmas time, and they announced in our school that we would have a special visitor. In came this man, dressed as Santa Claus. He gave us each a present. Afterward, I learned that he was President Duvalier. It felt so strange. I knew he was a bad man. His army was doing horrible things.”

I could understand Gerald’s confusion as a boy – meeting a brutal dictator who hid behind a fake Santa beard. Talk about a wolf in sheep’s clothing!

 "Watch out for false prophets. 
They come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly they are as ferocious as wolves.
"
 -Matt. 7:15 (TNIV)
  

In a sermon preached in 1978 – a year in which Duvalier ruled in Haiti and Jim Jones led his cult followers to commit mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana – my father observed that our world is one filled with false authorities. “This is a very real danger in our day. … False authorities never pass themselves off as false. They claim to be genuine – the one and only true voice of God. Wolves almost always come in sheep’s clothing, with many of them masquerading under the guise of Christianity and hiding behind a lot of talk about Jesus. And that makes you and me as Christians susceptible to them. We must be wary and discriminating.”

So, how do we know in this confusing age what is the voice of true authority, the voice we should listen to? Who is really speaking for God?” Looking to the example of Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15-22, my dad set out to answer these questions by identifying five marks of true authority, especially within the church, but also beyond it:

1.   Every good authority, right from the start, realizes that he/she is dispensable. In our lesson from Deuteronomy, Moses is speaking to the Hebrew people about the qualities of a true prophet of God. Why? Because he is preparing the people for a shift of the mantle of authority from himself to whomever his successor will be. Moses knows that he is finite and that God’s plan extends far beyond him. … This is a sign of a wholesome authority, one who is not afraid to take up the mantle, but one who is willing when the time comes to put it around the shoulders of another.

2.   Every leader who wields true authority, standing as he/she does between God and the people, needs to be a friend of both – intimately acquainted both with God and the people he/she leads. … In some sense, it is the duty of the leader to stand between God and the people. [A]ll of us need leaders who are so in touch with God and with us that they become a meeting place for us with God. Their very presence then reminds us and inspires us to honor God.

3.   The one who wields rightful authority points consistently over his/her shoulder to God and not to himself or herself. Any discerning person should become wary when the leader becomes egotistical, when the movement turns from serving human need and honoring God. This happens in religion (think of Oral Roberts naming a university after himself), but it happens in local churches, too; it happens in business; it happens in politics. It happens wherever leaders forget that, as the Apostle Paul said, ‘there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.’ All power belongs to God, and any bit of that power any of us wields – whether it be in our family, or in our work, or in a committee, we wield on behalf of the Lord. A worthy leader bends over backwards to make this perfectly clear.

4.   Authorities worth their salt, worthy to be followed, have a track record of effectiveness. [Moses warns to beware of] a prophet [who] speaks in the name of the Lord, [but] the word does not come to pass or come true[.] I think what he means is don’t follow after flashes in the pan. Don’t let your head be turned by any Johnny-come-lately. Listen to leaders who have a record of consistent, faithful and true stewardship of their authority, leaders who do not abuse their power, leaders whose service has truly met the needs of their people. Look to those ministries which God has blessed with fruit.

5.   There is a final mark of good authority which is exemplified by our Lord Jesus Christ himself. You can be sure authority is from God when it arouses the opposition of known evil. If leadership doesn't provoke evil, it is suspect. [In Mark 1:21-28,] Jesus began teaching with authority in the synagogue, and all of a sudden here before him was this man possessed of an evil spirit, raising a fuss and harassing Jesus. … [T]hat’s the way it is when you’re doing the will of God. Evil is upset and disturbed. The devil comes out to do battle with you. And if he doesn't be very suspicious that perhaps you’re not doing the will of God at all. [W]e must be suspicious of any would-be authority that sits well with too many people, that doesn't arouse opposition, that attracts money and success and popularity, that nestles in snugly with the establishment and the status quo. There’s too much wrong with this world for any Christian to get along that well with it.

As Christians, let’s show the world whom to follow – those who are humble and know us as well as the God they serve, who readily acknowledge that their authority is a trust from God, whose efforts have produced good, and who have stood firm in the face of the efforts of the Evil One to undo them.”

From: “The Voice of Authority” & “As One Who Had Authority”
Scripture: Deuteronomy 18:15-22 & Mark 1:21-28