I knew something fascinating was coming when my friend and co-author, Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn, sent me an e-mail saying, “Gentiles do not have the monopoly on religious intolerance and stupidity.” (Our book is “They Were Just People: Stories of Rescue in Poland During the Holocaust.”)   Jacques had just read one of the regularly e-mailed Torah commentaries he receives from a prominent Orthodox Jewish source. In it, the author, a rabbi, had recounted the story of another rabbi who once told a student this: “There is a source for April Fool’s Day. If you count 8 months and 25 days after April 1st you arrive at December 25th. April Fool’s Day is the day on which the world is deceived and made a fool of that there was some sort of ‘immaculate conception,’” the rabbi’s reference to the day Jesus was conceived.   Jacques, a Reform rabbi who draws on learning from a wide range of Jewish traditions, including Orthodox, was outraged that someone slammed Christmas, and by implication … [Read more...]

At the end of a line of 14 other persons standing in front of our congregation to profess their faith and become members a few weeks ago sat my stepson Chris in a wheelchair.   “I’m here,” he cried out in what could only be understood as joy when his name was called.   And how blessed Second Church of Kansas City is by his presence. For as the contemporary theologian Jürgen Moltmann has said, a congregation in which disabled persons are not accepted is itself “a disabled church.”   Those are fine sentiments, but let’s be realistic. Chris, who suffers from a seizure disorder and developmental disability, functions cognitively as about a five-year-old. His speech is sometimes hard to understand. His mobility issues increasingly confine him to a wheelchair. Beyond all that he calls me a “duckhead” and jokes that my name is George.   Given such realities, what can Chris possibly bring to my congregation and what can he get from us?   Those are questions that … [Read more...]

My congregation may or may not help to create one of the “1001 New Worshiping Communities” the PC(USA) is promoting, but just having that challenge before us has made a difference.   It’s further evidence that, as a rule, we should embrace the possibility of change, not resist change at all costs.   I’ve been part of a small group from my congregation this past year that has been dreaming together about what a new worshiping community would look like if we were to help get one going or just support one’s emergence. This discussion has blossomed many ideas — not just for the 1001 project but also for our existing congregation.   We’ve talked about new ways to connect with students attending the University of Missouri-Kansas City, which is our down-the-street neighbor. We’ve thought about renewing a previous effort to connect with a predominantly African-American congregation. And we’ve kicked around lots of other proposals.   Perhaps some of these ideas would have … [Read more...]

LIBERTYVILLE, ILL – I was barely in the door of my sister’s house here for a recent visit when she said, “Oh, you’ve got to see this.”   And off she went to retrieve a large coffee table book and separate study guide. The book was “Worship, Fellowship, and the Work of the Kingdom: The First Church of Lake Forest, Established 1859.”   Mary’s pastor there, Christine Chakoian, an occasional contributor to the Outlook, has sculpted her doctoral dissertation into this remarkable collection of stories, photos and documents that describes how Lake Forest itself and then the church grew up intertwined.   What most intrigued me was my sister’s attachment to stories of pioneering women in the church. She especially wanted me to read about Sarah Jane Rhea who lived in the mid-1800s and became a missionary to Persia with her husband. He died overseas in 1865 leaving her with several children to rear.   Sarah joined First Church of Lake Forest in 1873 when it was just 14 years … [Read more...]

Most of us have heard the possibly apocryphal story of theologian Karl Barth answering a student’s question about the most important thing he’s learned in his decades of study. Barth responded with words from a Sunday school hymn: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”   What always struck me about the story was that in his answer Barth affirmed that we learn lots of theology through the words of hymns. It’s still true.   That’s one reason the folks putting together a new PC(USA) hymnal decided that a phrase in the hymn “In Christ Alone” reflected unbalanced theology and voted to leave the hymn out. I agreed with the decision because the line in the hymn that says “the wrath of God was satisfied” in Jesus’ death reflects the idea that his death was somehow pacifying God’s anger, which is an interpretation of the atonement I find, at best, inadequate.   That theory emphasizes the point that God saves us because Christ died for us, whereas I believe the … [Read more...]

In the summer of 2011, I was in downtown Detroit (site of the 2014 General Assembly) for the annual conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.   One evening, the husband of one of our members fell ill — so ill that an ambulance was summoned to the conference headquarters hotel.   As my friend Stu Bykofsky of the Philadelphia Daily News later reported in a column, the wife of the ill man “called 9-1-1 and waited. And waited. And waited. The hotel, the Westin Book Cadillac, called 9-1-1. Fifty-five minutes later, with no help on the way, 9-1-1 advised (the caller) to take a cab to the hospital.”   With such foundational problems, Detroit, now having filed for bankruptcy, needs all the Presbyterians (and others) it can get. I’m glad the next General Assembly will meet there. If a city can fill the role of the robbed, beaten man in the parable of the Good Samaritan, surely it’s Detroit, which probably should change its slogan from Motown to Potown.   In … [Read more...]