the Outlook Blog

I've written previously about the coming time when the respective theological camps of our church will sign the papers, break up the house, and form their own new homes.

It may yet come to that.

And it may be the only way to prevent further harm.

But everyone must realize that "gracious separation," no matter how gracious it be, is still a separation, and, thus, a failure of love. We cannot love one another, and why it should be so is profoundly complex, I'm sure. But complexity aside, we cannot love one another.

Someone might said, "Oh, but of course, we can love one another. We just can't live together any longer." 

But love is love - it's not just some distant sentiment - it's the enjoyment of one another, and the realization of mutual need; it's the discipline of staying together in the face of difficulty.

These thoughts are prompted by my reading this morning in Jacob Needleman's book, What is God?". On page 133, while discussing "rationalists" and "empiricists," he suggests that Kant's position helps these respective groups "find their own true place - a sure sign that a higher reconciliation has been achieved. The true reconciling force," writes Needleman, "never destroys, it always preserves and rescues the truth of both previous 'adversaries' [bold, mine].

 Neither side compromises, but through a "higher reconciliation," each side finds its place, as each recognizes the inherent truth in one another.

Gracious separation and moving away, or some kind of in-house separation, with non-geographic Presbyteries or Synods, only demonstrates our inability to find ways to talk to one another and, perhaps, talk our way through.

Having said that, I'm clear that our current distress is more than just theological discourse, but practice.

As one conservative said to me, "We'd just like to have a place where we can hold to our theology."

I replied, "But it's more than theology. It's practice, and the heart of the practical question is ordination for GLBT persons, and for me, it's a question of justice."

There were those in the years leading up to the Civil War who wanted to maintain theological discussion, but there were others who saw the condition of slave-labor and said, "It must cease."

For me, discrimination against GLBT persons must cease!

For others, the bar against ordination of GLBT persons must remain in place.

How do our respective camps work our way through this?

Think again of the Civil War. Abolition for the Union, or States' Rights for the South? 

Our nation fought a war over it, and we may yet sign the papers of separation and divorce. 

Yet, we all must pause and think.

I have no answers, but to invite us to share together whenever we can and maintain mutual prayers. 

Been thinking a lot about Genesis 15, since I preached from it Feb. 28.

Been thinking about the small promises of God - God promises Abram a bleak 400 years of slavery for his descendants, and though God will rescue them at the right time and bring them to the land, there's no promise here of bliss, but only of life.

Abram, at least, is promised a long life and a peaceable death.

God's promises are small, but real ... more real than all the bloated, artificial, self-seeking, egotistical, manipulative, fear-driven, promises of our world - buy this, get this, do this, be like this, and you will ... (fill in the blank).

Been also wondering why Christians have bloated the promises of God.

Pop christian music is particularly bloated ...

TV preachers are pretty bloated, too ... and hungry for our money.

How many good and decent preachers have stood in a pulpit, compelled (by what forces?) to offer bloated promises, "If only we give our life to Christ - then, by golly, our teeth will whiten, we'll lose weight, popularity issues will be resolved, employment and promotion will come our way, parking places will magically appear while our godless neighbors have to circle the block endlessly, like some bizarre scene out of Dante's Purgatory ... while others die in freeway crashes and airplane accidents, our guardian angel will shelter us. Our kids will grow up to be successful; we'll live in a beautiful home in the right part of town. We'll be free of illness, and if you should get sick (silly me!), Jesus will heal you. And, then, when we die, off to heaven we go. All we need to do is ...."

What is up with this?

Are not the real promises of God good enough?

 

A few days ago I read a brief denominational paper which, like many others before it, addresses the issues of pastoral leadership and the church’s future. The beginning point of the paper, again like so many others, focuses our attention on various changes in contemporary culture asking questions about how we can be more relevant to people in this time while remaining faithful to our ecclesiastical traditions.

After reading this paper – written by dedicated people who care very much about Christ and the church – I lamented with my colleague, Ted Wardlaw, the ways in which the beginning point for the paper determined both its direction (making it into a rather utilitarian document seemingly grounded in the assumption that the future of the church rests in our hands) and its almost defeatist tone (feeding a generalized anxiety that grips much of American Protestantism), and how a different starting point, an explicitly THEO-logical starting point would have changed the whole character and spirit of the paper.

Please let me explain what I mean. A generation ago, in a series of lectures later published in the United States under the title, Christ the Center, Dietrich Bonhoeffer critiqued our various attempts to understand Jesus Christ that begin by asking “How” questions, (for example, “How can Christ be both divine and human?” “How is it possible for God to be both three and one?” “How can an eternal God be subject to creaturely changes?” And so forth). According to Bonhoeffer, all such roads that begin in questions of “How” inevitably lead to dead-ends of arid curiosity that try to force the unprecedented and unique event of God in-the-flesh into some already existing categories we’ve fashioned with our own hands.

Bonhoeffer’s alternative is elegantly simple. When we return to the biblical witness, we discover that it is unconcerned about questions of “How” but is preoccupied with the question of “Who.” As someone said of Bonhoeffer: “Every avenue of his thinking leads him to confront Christ and ask, ‘Who art thou, Lord?’ or to be confronted by Christ and hear his question, ‘Who do you say that I am?’”[1]

Here’s my point: when we begin with the various questions of “How” in our current climate we inevitably privilege issues of utility over character: How can we appeal to people whose attention spans have been conditioned by years of television viewing? How can we re-craft the church’s message so it competes in a marketplace already saturated with other messages? How can we train church leaders who are more entrepreneurial? I could go on and on. And we do go “on and on” in this vein! Anxiety climbs as we give ourselves the impression that the church’s survival depends on us, that we must change or the church will die.

We all know that just putting some theological window-dressing on a document will not solve the problem. One only has to look at a artifact from the church’s past to see this confirmed: for instance, the sixteenth-century theologian William Perkins, in his “The Golden Chain,” nods first to God the Holy Trinity before proceeding in his discussion of election to undercut the very notion that Jesus Christ fully reveals God. But, as another theologian, Karl Barth, observed toward the end of his life: when we get the starting point wrong it’s very hard to get much else right. And the starting point that corrects our self-obsessions and anxiety is the THEO-logical starting point.

God is revealed in Jesus Christ. And the God revealed in Christ calls us to our true and full humanity in Jesus Christ. The God who is almighty in power, in whose hands surely rest our past, present and future, is also the God almighty in love, into whose hands we can entrust our lives and all that we love. To say we believe in the God revealed in Jesus Christ (as opposed to any number of other gods promoted by our culture, whether gods of technology, nationalism, brute force or wealth) is to say something distinctive about everything we are and do. Certainly to say we believe in the God revealed in Christ it is to place boundaries on our actions. But it is also to imagine bridges across gaps that seem too vast to span. And ultimately it is to liberate us to imagine new ways to be and to flourish. To speak of this God is to speak THEO-logically, and this is our first and fundamental business as church.

Last summer while attending a gathering at one of our church’s marvelous conference centers, I overheard a neighbor complain about a presentation we were listening to. He muttered under his breath, “This speaker is just too theological.” Now, he wasn’t saying that the speaker was too abstract, academic or long-winded, too narcissistic, self-referential or lacking in insight. The speaker was “too theological.” The presentation was just about God, about who God is and what it means for us to worship and love this God. His comment reminded me of something John Leith once said in a series of lectures here at Austin Seminary: “The renewal of the church will not come without the recovery of the authenticity and theological integrity of the church’s message and a renewed emphasis on preaching… [our] first concern … must always be content.” Leith said this by way of addressing the topic, “What the church has to say that no one else can say.”[2]

The church can’t be too theological. In the final analysis, listening for the Word (Logos) of God (Theos), speaking a word about God (theology), living lives in the Spirit of God’s Word: this is really the only excuse for our existence as church. We begin THEO-logically so we can remember who we are and where we are going.

Michael Jinkins is dean and professor of pastoral theology at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Texas.


[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Christ the Center, John Bowden, tr. (New York: Harper & Row, 1960); the quote is from Edwin H. Robertson’s introduction to the book, 16-17.

[2] John H. Leith, The Reformed Imperative: What the Church Has to Say That No One Else Can Say (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1988),

“I’m amazed,” wrote David Brooks a few years ago, “that Reinhold Niebuhr hasn’t made a comeback since September 11. After all, he was one of America’s most profound writers on war and international conflict.”  Recently, of course, Reinhold Niebuhr’s name did re-enter public conversation in a very big way because President Obama described Niebuhr as his “favorite theologian.” When presidents drop your name, your name gets noticed. But Niebuhr has been a favorite theologian for generations of public intellectuals and political leaders.

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., for example, credited Niebuhr as a core influence particularly on the book that was, arguably, Schlesinger’s greatest contribution to American political thought, The Vital Center: The Politics of Freedom (1949), in which he quotes Niebuhr as saying: “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.” Just a year prior to the publication of Schlesinger’s book, Niebuhr appeared on the cover of Time magazine.

The fact that Niebuhr is enjoying a comeback these days is no surprise to theologians and ethicists, like Robin W. Lovin who in his 1995 book Reinhold Niebuhr and Christian Realism called the twentieth century “Niebuhr’s Century.” As Brooks anticipated, when the going gets tough Niebuhr’s makes even more sense. But, in light of this recovery of Niebuhr another question has picked up steam: “Where are our Reinhold Niebuhrs today?”

This might be a good question; although I think it could be refined a bit: When’s the last time Protestant Christianity produced a figure whose stature as a public intellectual merited that person’s appearance on the cover of a major news magazine?

Mind you, there are Christian intellectuals out there, people who combine deep understanding of public policy issues and theological wisdom. But rarely are they able to communicate their ideas as memorably as did Niebuhr.

More commonly, the self-appointed spokespersons of Christianity in our time tend to represent factions and narrow interests, sometimes even fringe ideologies, in ways that make thoughtful Christians cringe. {This week, for example, as I write this essay, in my home state of Texas, the news media has reported the story of “Christians” who demand that the social studies and history textbooks adopted in our public schools reflect their own take on American history, promoting “American Exceptionalism” and the idea that American expansionism represents God’s providence. When did our understanding of “balanced reporting” come to mean that fairness in the media means that we should treat fantasies and falsehoods as though they are true?}

Maybe the question, “Where are our Reinhold Niebuhrs today” is just enough off-kilter to miss a more crucial point. Maybe asking where are the intellectual giants of Christianity who could speak for us and to us is just another way to avoid our culpability in the lack of such voices.

Garry Wills once observed, with reference to leadership in general, that we get the leaders we demand. We may even get the leaders we deserve. But we definitely do not get better leaders unless we demonstrate more responsible follower-ship. “Show me you leader,” Wills said, “and you have bared your soul.”[1]

Perhaps much the same holds true for Christian public intellectuals of the caliber of Reinhold Niebuhr. Niebuhrs emerge because we will listen to them. I don’t mean to take anything away from Niebuhr’s unique genius, but I suspect there are Niebuhrs among us today, if only we would listen for them. What gets put on the cover of Time or any other magazine has a lot to do with us and what quality of thinking we will tolerate.

I’ve been wondering recently why we call the most famous of texts Niebuhr wrote, “The Serenity Prayer.” True, the opening line goes, “God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed.” But the prayer also prays for “courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.”  Maybe, if Christians care about the quality of public discourse, we ought to pray even more today for the courage to change and the wisdom to discern, because these virtues just might encourage us to listen harder for the Niebuhrs among us.

Michael Jinkins is dean and professor of pastoral theology at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Texas.

[1] Garry Wills, Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders (Simon & Schuster, 1994), 21.

One of the weekly features that I like best in Sports Illustrated is a small vignette called “Sign of the Apocalypse.” These are brief looks at things that are so weird, off the wall, just plain nuts, and a sure sign that things just can’t go on if this kind of craziness keeps up for much longer….

            I got to thinking, we could turn some these crazy things around to point at signs of the Second Coming of Christ.  By that I mean, can these crazy things spark in us instances in the Bible and our faith lives that point directly to the coming of Jesus that will take us all home to the completed Kingdom of God?

            Some of these reflections may border on the profound (who knows), others on the silly, and still others on the ridiculous.  Please take them simply at face value.  I am not trying to make any great – everlasting statement about the End Times or anything.  I am simply taking strange, maddening, crazy and sometimes funny situations and putting them in the context of my faith life.

            So, I will give it a shot using 14 different examples from Sports Illustrated to point to the Heavenly Reign of God in Heaven!  Some will take some explaining, and others will just have the Scripture, and let you make the connections.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Steve Nofel

1.      February 1, 2010 - An Atlanta promoter has announced the formation of a whites only basketball league that will focus on “fundamental basketball” rather than “street ball.”

Galatians 3:26-28 - You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

When we finally get over all the racial prejudice, bigotry, and hate just because someone is “different” from us, we will truly cloth ourselves and our world in Christ – for we will finally KNOW we are all one in Jesus Christ.

2.      December 28, 2009 (Golfer) Tiger Woods was mentioned on the cover of the New York Post for 20 consecutive days, surpassing the 9/11 attacks (19 days) for the longest streak in the paper's history.

I don’t think I know anyone who has not gotten caught up at least a little bit in the whole Tiger Woods soap opera.  It is forever in the headlines and on the news.  It is like watching train wreck about to happen.  I don’t want to see it, but I don’t want to look away either.  Yet, the Apostle Paul tells us, we can and should focus on a more excellent way:
1 Corinthians 12:31-13:8 - But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.

 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

3.      Nov 30, 2009 - Iraqi detainees at a prison camp in Baghdad have been taunting U.S. soldiers from Wisconsin about Brett Favre's signing with the Vikings.

Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."  And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One." The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself." – Luke 23:34-37

Even at His most desperate - painful time, when He was abandoned and being put to death by those He loved, Jesus reached out in forgiveness to those who taunted Him, and, loved them still

4.      Oct 19, 2009 – (Seattle) Seahawks fullback Owen Schmitt needed medical attention after splitting open his forehead by slamming himself with his helmet to fire up the crowd during pregame introductions on Sunday.

1 Corinthians 6: 19-20 - Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

5.      Oct 12, 2009 - Citing the dangers of global warming, a member of Tokyo's 2016 Olympic bid committee said, "It could be that the 2016 Games are the last Olympics in the history of mankind."

(Signs of the End of the Age)

Matthew 24:30-36 "At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

 "Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

6.      Sept 21, 2009 - An animal-rescue group will donate five bags of dog food to a Washington, D.C., shelter for every time Michael Vick is tackled when the Redskins play the Eagles next month.

Psalm 106:6 (The Message) - We've sinned a lot, both we and our parents; We've fallen short, hurt a lot of people. After our parents left Egypt, they took your wonders for granted, forgot your great and wonderful love. They were barely beyond the Red Sea when they defied the High God —the very place he saved them! —the place he revealed his amazing power! He rebuked the Red Sea so that it dried up on the spot —he paraded them right through! —no one so much as got wet feet! He saved them from a life of oppression, pried them loose from the grip of the enemy…Then they believed his words were true and broke out in songs of praise.

You may remember quarterback Michael Vick was convicted of animal cruelty, trafficking dogs illegally and promoting and holding dog fights to the death on his home property.  He actually did time in prison for his sin.  He seems to have turned his life around, I really hope so.  At the same time, while I may never root for him again, I must realize we have all sinned a lot, and all can be forgiven by our all-powerful God.  I pray for myself to repent of my offenses, and for Michael Vick, and everyone (all of us) who have fallen short.

7.      July 27, 2009 - In an ad on the Lions' website for streaming video of old games, fans of the team, which went 0--16 last year, were exhorted to RELIVE THE 2008 SEASON.

Isaiah 6:10 - Close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes.

Sorry about the bad pun.  I am still sore that the Lions beat my Cleveland Browns in 2009 (I am a native Clevelander and a Browns fan for more than 40 years).

Here is a saying I found about closed eyes from the Book of Proverbs when I was looking for the Isaiah passage that got me wondering: He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses. (Proverbs 28:27).

 A very serious question:  What do you believe this Proverb means?

8.      June 22, 2009 - An Arlington, Wash., Little League coach is accused of using some of his players to help him break into and rob an abandoned tool shop.

Matthew 18:5-6 - "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”

9.      June 8, 2009 - A bodybuilding competition in the Netherlands was canceled after all of the competitors fled when drug testers arrived.

1 Thessalonians 5:4-6 - But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled.

10.  June 1, 2009 During a Mets game a plumber had to be called to Citi Field to free a woman whose arm got stuck in a toilet when she tried to retrieve a lost gold tooth.  

Matthew 6:19-21 - "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

11.  March 30, 2009 Police in Indiana drove a high school basketball coach 45 miles to his team's playoff game after he posted bond on a DWI charge.

1 Thes. 3:68 - In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you.

In the First Letter to the Thessalonians, Paul urges them to follow his and his companions’ example of good Christian hard work and ethic.  He could make this request, because even though he was an imperfect man, he tried his best to follow his savior.  And when Paul did fall short, his letters show he picked himself up, repented, and tried again.  I only hope that after showing his high school team a terrible example that coach repented and got his act together.

12.  Feb 9, 2009 - Former Steelers running back Franco Harris is selling a line of furniture called the Immaculate Collection.

This one will take a little explaining.  December 23, 1972, Franco Harris plucked a tipped pass out of the air and ran for a touchdown with no time left on the clock to beat the Oakland Raiders in a playoff game.  The wags have forever dubbed that catch “The Immaculate Reception.”  There is even a statue in the Pittsburgh International Airport of Harris making the grab at his shoe tops.  So it is actually funny that Harris now has a line of furniture called   “Immaculate Collection.”

Now what many don’t realize that the Immaculate Conception is NOT the conception of Jesus in Mary by the Holy Spirit.  The Immaculate Conception refers to the conception of the Virgin Mary in her mother (traditionally named Anna) in her mother.  This is held by the Roman Church thinking that only a perfect, sinless vessel could have held our Savior for nine months.  Yet, God came to a sinful world, and saved us.  I got no trouble with Mary being a regular sinner like the rest of us.  In fact, I take comfort in the fact that God uses sinful humans to witness to salvation and to do the work of witness and ministry. “…born of the Virgin Mary, He became man…”

13.  Jan 19, 2009 Cricket fans in the hometown of India's national team captain are building a temple where he will be worshiped as a god.
Exodus 20:2-4 -"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.”

14.  October 13, 2008 - An Elgin, Ill., high school student was forced to remove a Cubs jersey she wore to school because a staffer thought fukudome was a curse word.

1 John 4: 4-6 - You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

Sometimes we not only see things from the world’s point of view, we actually assume the world’s point of view.  We thing we know what someone means before they actually say it.  We often assume they mean ill, because we just think they do.  But as Children of God we are to look with Christ’s eyes.  Look on others with love then go about strengthening them with hugs, or rebukes or any other helps.

By the way “fukudome” is the name of the Chicago Cub’s Japanese born right fielder, Kosuke Fukudome.

 

Reading Jim Wallis' Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street.

Makes me wonder: Where has the church been the last 50 years?

What kinds of questions have we been asking of ourselves? Of our politicians and our financial captains?

Have we been asking questions at all?

Or have we retreated into our theological havens, our self-help retreat centers, our feel-good-and-be-prosperous  church growth stategies?

Have we offered a creed without a conscience? 

Jesus without justice?

Heaven without earth? 

A spirituality without a witness to the culture?

Have we been so preoccupied with numbers and buildings and programs and projects that we have missed the heart of the gospel?

If any of the above questions can be answered, in full or in part, with a yes, then we have failed, and our failure is part and parcel of our nation's plunge into economic chaos.

Whether we have been liberal or conservative, the tide of culture has weakened the church, turning the church into a little afternoon tea-party or Monday-night pub discussions about supralapsarianism. 

Conservatives have sought refuge in bedroom theology and politics; liberals have found similar refuge in various causes - but all of us have been afraid to ask the deep questions so badly needed by our nation.

We have winked at the accumulation of wealth without restraint; we have blessed the stock market with a carte blanch; we have made happiness the supreme goal of life; we have lost our sense of the common good, and are morally adrift on Pinocchio's Pleasure Island - which, by the way, is a parable of the times in which we have lived for the last 50 years!

Where and how has the church failed to ask the good questions needed to keep our nation's moral compass rightly calibrated?

How have we failed to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world?

If we've failed, there is sufficient fault to go around - neither the conservative nor the liberal wings of the church can claim exemption.

I look forward to some comment here, and let it be confessional, not accusatory. 

A friend asked me to put some thought together to define liberal as I see it ...

Here's what I wrote:

Hi John ... I think both ... a freedom to think broadly, experimentally - but clearly, for me, the term represents the best in America's political story - that which gave us the National Parks and child labor laws; that which abolished slavery and established civil rights for people of color and women.

The liberal spirit busted the trusts under Teddy Roosevelt, gave us Social Security under FDR and promoted unions to protect the working class and build the middle class.   John, you ask good questions: For the church, a place of free inquiry because of a solid faith, not in spite of it, with less emphasis on "winning souls" and a lot more emphasis on living the faith, and letting God do the winning through our witness (my Calvinism is showing!).

I think the struggle today for Gay Rights is akin to the struggle for civil rights and women's suffrage and ordination. Why the church tends to be last in line on so many of these things astounds me. We talk of heaven, but seemingly close our eyes to the hell in which so many millions are forced to live their days.   Socially, a safe society - where aliens have an easier time of it, where employers are penalized for illegal hiring rather than gathering up these poor families late at night and deporting them.

We have to recover our manufacturing basis - if there were a crisis and the shipping lanes disrupted, we couldn't make our own refrigerators anymore. We need to sever the link between employment and health care and put it where it belongs - in government.

We need a major public transportation effort to curb our fuel usage and rebuild our cities around it rather than freeways (and I live in LA) We have to learn how to curb our spending, learn to live with less, pay more for what we have to support our middle class and keep jobs here in America.

Our corporations have to be leashed; and super-wealth taxed! Junk food and corn syrup banned! Feed McDonald's executives their own crap three times a day for a month, take away their cars and make them use public transportation.  Oh well, you asked ... a lot of random thoughts.  John, tell me more about your vision, for the church and for our society.

Though this part of the city largely escaped the worst of Hurricane Katrina (the church’s sanctuary was badly damaged but has been restored), this congregation has experienced a rebirth in the wake of the storm because of the sense of mission the devastation awakened. In the weeks following the hurricane, the congregation mobilized its membership and resources; it assembled, coordinated, and housed volunteers from around the country to rebuild homes and indeed whole neighborhoods ravaged by Katrina.

The vitality of the church is evident in its worship and preaching, as well as in programs of community service. As the leadership of the church reflected on the church’s future mission in our leadership retreat, asking what might be the next steps the congregation needs to take, some wondered aloud what it would mean for them to re-envision their whole mission program yet again. Beyond the immediate goal of building homes and neighborhoods, what would it mean to allow their on-going mission work to afford also an intentional educational opportunity for themselves and for others? Members of congregations would come to their city not only to rebuild structures and neighborhoods, but to gain new and deeper understandings of Christian mission that might transform the lives of their congregations and communities back home. St. Charles Avenue would become a mission-education center, as well as a coordinator of mission itself.

The conversations over the course of these two days were lively and animated. In closing my portion of the retreat I described four beatitudes that had been taking shape in my mind as I listened to them discuss their mission past, present, and future. These beatitudes may be worthwhile for all of us to remember as we continue to rethink, adapt, and transform the ministries of our own congregations.

Bless dissent. In the very first session of the retreat a theme emerged: No single one of us knows where our church needs to go next, but together we will. In order to discover the shape of our future mission we must bless dissent. The church is the Body of Christ, St. Paul tells us, and a body has many organs, each with its own distinctive functions. However, not only does a heart have a different function from a foot, it has a whole different perspective on the body and the world the body inhabits. Variety of perspective isn’t always pretty, but differences need not lead to divisions. We must learn to bless our differences, even (maybe especially) our dissent, because we simply do not know where the key insights are coming from that will transform us, and no one of us has the understanding we need to find our way.

Bless failure. Samuel Becket once wrote a line of sheer poetry that also represents a fundamental insight into human maturity and good leadership. “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better,” Becket wrote.  Notice: there are no question marks in this collection of six short sentences. The hinge on which maturity and health turn is in that third small sentence, with its gracious shrug of the shoulders. “No matter.” It transforms the fact of life (We try. We fail.), making possible the resolute and marvelous closing sentence, “Fail better.” The education we all need waits for us in our failures.

Bless story. Someone once observed, “Do you know why I believe that ideas can change the world? Because nothing else ever has.” I love this statement because I love ideas, the bigger the better; and the statement is almost true. But there are times when good ideas, even great ideas, don’t win the day. When great ideas don’t win, I’ve noticed that the thing that beat them was a story (though some of the stories weren’t even true). The power of stories, of legends, myths, fables and fairy tales is the greatest power for transformation known to humanity. The late Don Hewitt, the creator of the enormously successful television news magazine, “Sixty Minutes,” credited that program’s durability to the fact that they always answered a basic human request: “Tell me a story.” A church needs to cast its big ideas (including its mission) in stories.

Bless blessing. The power to bless is ultimately the greatest power the church possesses. We live in a culture of cursing. Cable television and talk radio are driven by the power to curse. And if we, as church, simply conform to the mold of this age, cursing our way through our culture, we will have failed to live up to the call of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who came into this world that we might have life and have it in abundance. The curse boasts that its power is the only real power on earth. But, as the Bible reminds us again and again, the end of the curse’s power is always a grave, and the power to bless raises us to new life. The author of the original beatitudes chose to end his list with this one, reminding us to “rejoice and be glad.” After all, it’s when we bless that people notice a family resemblance between us and the God who created us.

MICHAEL JINKINS is dean and professor of pastoral theology at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Texas.

 

 

[...]

A good friend and his congregation were recently dismissed, graciously, to the EPC, and though he and I differ significantly on quite a few things, he and I have known one another for nearly 20 years and each respects the other.

Knowing one another, there can never be charges of any kind, because of our mutual regard and respect - for we have come to our differences via much the same path: prayer and study, faithfulness to Christ and a love for the church.

Yet, like Paul and Barnabas with regard to Mark, here we are, on different sides of some major issues.

In our conversations with one another, one thing we agree upon: we're both terribly tired and mutually eager to get on with the mission of Christ as the Holy Spirit unfolds that mission in our respective lives.

I told him that I would daily pray for him, his congregation and the EPC. Frankly, at first, praying for the EPC wasn't the most pleasant sensation, but I stayed with it, even as I prayed for him and his congregation.

Interesting phenomenon - my spirit is healing; I find myself praying for the EPC more agreeably, as I know he prays for me and my gang - prayer without prejudice, but simply a prayer for blessing.

All in all, we have reached an impasse of major proportion, and it's time for us to deal with it rather than attempt the humanly impossible, and we have to quit deferring our struggle to some distant hope for a miracle - church history reveals its better, after a long siege, to go our separate ways, lest even more damage be done.

Like Paul and Barnabas, there was a separation of the ways. Yet, I suspect, they prayed for one another, and we can do the same.

History has seen the deck shuffled many times. In this land of cabbages and kings, it's not likely to be any other way.

One thing for sure, we have to cease the court battles.

And for the churches who leave, I would hope they have the means and the will for some financial remuneration - it's only fare.

Yet Paul says this: owe no one anything but love, and that we can do.

The words "apostate" and "heretic" have no place in the life of the church today; we are all sisters and brothers of Christ in the family of God. We must stop vilifying one another - it only brings hurt to the Body of Christ and shames us in the eyes of the world. And it's time to bid farewell to one another; we won't live that far away from one another, and I suspect there will still remain plenty of opportunities for us to enjoy fellowship and engage in local and regional mission. Who knows, there might be union Presbyteries in the distant future. It happens all within the family.

So, ca we really pray for one another?

We can, and we must!

We compliment one another …

Some can sing and some can pray with a special gift that blesses someone else.

Some can teach and some can preach.

Some have a way with dollars and cents.

Some can plan and organize.

Some have an extraordinary sensitivity and compassion.

Some are visionary.

Some are filled with the passions of justice and social reform.

Some dream dreams and see visions of God.

Some are quiet and some are loud.

Some are hard and some are soft.

Some are heaven-drawn.

Some are earth-anchored.

Some love the past.

Some love the future.

But take all the someones, and we have

The sum of it.

We all add up to the church of Jesus Christ.

And he loves us all.

And needs us all.

To finish his work!