"He's looking at me! Mom, make him stop!"

Today, Jesus continues his journey with his disciples. If they were traveling today, it would be, no doubt, by car. Jesus would be driving and the disciples would be in the back seat (ok, it's a big back seat that can hold 12! Use your imagination a little). The disciples take things so literally from Jesus that they start acting like the children he told them to welcome last week: "Jesus, somebody who isn't following you prayed for someone and that's not fair! By the way, Jesus, Peter is on my side of the seat; make him scoot over!"

Poor Jesus, to be yoked with such losers. The vulnerability to which Jesus referred when he said to "welcome the child" was lost on them. These students just cannot seem to understand anything Jesus teaches them. Not even at the end of Mark's Gospel does anyone seem to have understood! Somehow Jesus' words have to sink in at some point. I guess I could say the same thing for me...

Take a look around today. I wonder if I have a tendency to take Jesus' words too literally? Welcome a child so much that you start to act childlike and you and I could take Jesus' words too far. To welcome a child is to welcome the vulnerability, the dependence upon God as a new way of life for all of humanity. When we don't welcome a child, we look past all of that vulnerability of our neighbor. That road leads us to nothing less than the hell that Jesus shows us in today's Gospel in Mark 10. The hell that we find ourselves in today is really a hell that we help to create. God is not the creator of such destructive behavior; it can only be found in the hearts of humanity that refuses to welcome.

What would our world look like if all the followers of Jesus made every decision with her or his neighbor in mind? What if the debate about, for example, pro-life or pro-abortion were not based on whether a baby were allowed to be born, but how the world into which that child were born was a welcoming one? That would mean considering how the vulnerable child would be cared for, educated, fed, loved. Who will welcome the child?

What do you think?

Peace,
Tim

I read somewhere recently from a theologian (whom I can not now recount, but do like to read I am sure) that, when Jesus uses the term "Son of Man" in Mark's Gospel, one should translate it, "fully human one". Also recently, I was part of a conversation that led in that same direction of comprehending Jesus as one who knew himself fully and completely and acted out of his perfect humanity.

In that aforementioned conversation, one of the participants recounted his new understanding of John's passion narrative. He had somehow overlooked, or missed in some way, the fact that the people who came to take Jesus by force in the garden fell backward when Jesus said, "I am he." To be sure, John is doing theology in a different way than Mark, but there is something to learn from both. Through our conversation, we ran the gamut of ideas about Jesus' identity and finally settled on the one that recognized Jesus' full humanity.

I know that this is a deep subject to consider, but let's think about this for a moment. How often have you or I acted in ways that were less than human - ways that showed our disconnect with God? How often has humanity itself acted in ways that betrayed our God-created existence? From the beginning of Judeo-Christian scriptures, everything was created to exist in harmony with itself, one another and with God. That "red thread" continues throughout the biblical narrative. Jesus came along in the Gospels and showed how humanity just couldn't reach God on our own - indeed, we kept messing up all of creation. So, what if Jesus' great power over sin and death is tied inextricably to his humanity as well as his deity? I mean, what if Jesus' perfection of humanity comes through his perfectly led human life? I tend to believe that only a human incarnation of God who could live perfectly is the only way out of the human tendency toward sinfulness. While John's Gospel accentuates the more "Almighty God" side of Jesus, Mark understands Jesus' perfect humanity in a way that frees humanity to live as God has created us to live.

This whole discussion, then, led me to question, "What if, because of Jesus, you and I are now empowered by God to live that same power?" Psychologists call this living a "fully-actualized" life - knowing who you are without any doubt. Living in this way does not preclude humility, it effects a deep understanding of how one "lives, moves and has being".

If you think that this is heretical and far off the mark of Christian understanding, I urge you to read the Eastern Orthodox mystics. There, you will find great emphasis on Jesus' humanity as well as humanity's ability to overcome sinfulness because of Jesus.

What do you think?

Peace,
Tim

Renew 52: An Idea a Week to Revitalize Your Congregation

Like that idea? Doesn't it sound exciting to know that there could be 52 different ways to revitalize your faith community? Luther Seminary in Minnesota offers a free e-book to anyone who desires it. All you need to do is copy and paste this link into your browser:  http://www.luthersem.edu/vcp/renew52/default.aspx. You need also a free app from Barnes and Noble for the Nook, or Amazon for the Kindle. If you don't already have one on your laptop or computer, you can download it for free from the website. If you need help, contact me and I will do my best to point you in the right direction.

Now, on to other things...

On Sunday, 23 September, I had the opportunity to preach in a different church for their mission festival. It was good to reminisce about a time in my family's life that is so easily put on a shelf and forgotten about. I got to share some stories from my own life as I wove together a homily that included God's story, as told to us by Mark 9.30-37. As you may remember, the disciples followed Jesus to Capernaum, and along the way they argued about who might be the greatest among them. In only a way that Jesus could, he showed them how God saw them by using a child as an example. That example stayed with me.

The child of Jesus' time resembles very much the child of today in Africa, specifically Cameroon, in my experience. You see, children have no ability to make any decisions; they have no power except what is forced upon them; they are susceptible to every disease that comes along - AIDS, malaria, TB, diabetes, and a plethora of others; the high mortality rate of a child before the age of one prohibits celebration until at least the first birthday. If there is a hospital in the local village, so many of the villagers cannot afford to go for something as simple as a packet of pills that could save a child from dying of malaria. The life of a child, in a word, is vulnerable.

We, in the US seem to have lost sight of that vulnerability - at least on some level - and yet, the US has one of the highest infant mortality rates among the "developed" countries of the world. That's difficult to imagine, but true. Many church communities from the US and other countries send missionaries to other countries, and do help with many of these life and death situations; but, the need is so great in the "under-developed" world that the needs often outweigh the resources. What if Jesus is saying to those of us who have that we are vulnerable to the attacks of our own desire to help ourselves to the detriment of others' lives? It seems to me a viable vulnerability on, at least, for the US.

So, what is the take-away from Jesus words? Where is the good news? Is it good news that you and I are vulnerable children, dependent upon the whims of God? I feel we must expand the picture past the idea that God could be the author of whims such as infant mortality or disease. Jesus' words echo within each of us a deep yearning for a God who cares for us, tenderly and completely. When the death comes, you and I can be assured that God is with us in the mix. The difficult for me, personally, is to remain focused on God's goodness and care for me. Once I trust, and I am speaking of Tim here, that God really does intend the best for me, I just might be convinced enough to share the news with others. There are others, after all, who need to hear that our vulnerability doesn't have to lead to death and destruction. Just maybe, in losing ourselves to the other, you and I may find who we really are.

What do you think?

Peace,
Tim 

Just under my computer screen sits a quote in French:

"In the beginning, when they believed that the illness was like all the others, religion felt in its place. But when they saw that the illness was serious, they were joyful...death is nothing to men like me. It's an event that gives reason to their lives."

Albert Camus wrote those words many years ago in his existentialist work, The Plague. For me the book spoke to my basic concern for the search for the "meaning of life". Do our lives make a difference, or would we never be missed if death came and took us from this world? I know, that's a deep question to ask; perhaps too deep for many to answer about themselves. But, I keep the quote on my desk to remind me to enjoy every moment of every day.

Is it misguided to ask yourself if your life has meaning? Is it wrong to ponder whether the direction you have personally chosen for your life is leading you in a positive direction? What do you think?

Just today I wrote my newsletter article for our congregational newsletter. I want to share it with you here:

I read a story recently about a man’s encounter with himself. Sounds odd, huh? I’ll retell the story so you can understand what I mean.

As a man sat in a mall, drinking his coffee, minding his own business, a homeless man walked up to him and asked for some money. At first glance at this unkempt homeless person standing before him, the idea popped into the man’s head to dismiss the man as a “bum”. The man didn’t, however; he, instead, was drawn to notice the man more closely. Lean face, dirty clothes and body, and a smell that could not go unnoticed from a few feet away seemed to be crying out, “I need help!” Though the homeless man only said, “Could you spare some change?” the man began to wonder, “I wonder if it’s ok to give money to this guy? If I do, I don’t get anything out of it but the fact that I have helped some poor guy.”

Against his better judgment, the man searched in his pocket and found a dollar coin. He gave the coin to this nameless man as he watched him run off with his treasure. He returned to his newspaper and began to think, “I wonder what he will do with the money?”

All night the man had wondered about the homeless one. He pondered his own feelings and actions; he pondered the actions of the other, to whom he had given; “What if I had done the wrong thing? What if he spends the money on drugs or alcohol? What if…what if…” The next day, this man could not get the homeless man out of his mind, when he realized: “It’s not about me and my feelings. It’s not about helping someone else and feeling good about doing that; it’s not even about whether I did the right thing! This whole encounter was God calling out to me, ‘How invested are you to the outsider?’”

In these past few weeks, as summer has wound down and fall has broken into our mornings with cooler, damper weather, I have wanted a little rest from responsibility to God’s call, haven’t you? When the air gets a little crisper and the days grow shorter, don’t you want to hibernate with the rest of nature? Well, God doesn’t seem to want to let go of us and let us just fall asleep to the rest of the world.

On Saturday nights, we have started the Narrative Lectionary and we have heard through scripture that God intends to participate in every aspect of life. If God is there in life, why shouldn’t we have the same desire?

On Sunday mornings, with the Revised Common Lectionary, Jesus has spoken through the parabolic gospel of Mark, pointing us in the direction of reaching out to the “other” – without regard of reward, without regard of self-aggrandizing, without regard to how the “other” may react to the reaching out.

No matter how we slice the good news from God, God always intends to respond faithfully to us with grace and compassion. Thanks be to God that God didn’t think, “I wonder what she will do if I give her grace? I wonder how he is going to react to my compassion? Should I really do this?” No, God reached out to the world without regard to economic status or ethnicity, or any other barrier that you or I want to place on one another. God reached out to you and me and gave the fullness of divine compassion and grace – Jesus. Just imagine what the world would look like if we didn’t have to second guess how we share that good news with one another.

What do you think?

I had an interesting lunch meeting with Lori Strang and Annie on Friday. Annie and I went to Toledo to meet with the pastor of Redeemer Lutheran and talk about a project that she wants to present to Zion's. We arrived at one of our favorite restos - Calvino's (if you've never been, you have to try it! It's the best pizza in Toledo) - and immediately after small talk and catching up, Lori began to present her "evangelism" idea. I was so impressed, I thought I would present it to the Council this month. I also talked with Lenore about it on Sunday and she thinks it's a good idea as well. So what's the plan?

Basically, the plan systematically looks at how Zion's functions within this community. This is a question I have had at every step of my life: What do I have to offer that might, in some way, present Jesus to others in a way that would help them to hear Jesus? It's basically the same question for Zion's. In a community of so many churches, of so many different flavors, why does Zion's exist? It seems to me a pertinent question as we discern together how God might be calling us to go forth in mission together.

To return to Lori's proposal, she attended with some people from Zoar, a seminar that has opened their small, redevelopment congregation to many options for ministry. Redeemer feels freed to move in any direction where God calls them; they almost feel completely unrestrained. Lori did not use these words exactly, but from her description, I saw freedom to be God's instrument written all over her words. An important part of her learning in the seminar is the need for input from outside the community in order to help us define who we are. If we decide to go into this process with her, she will ask us to hand pick 4-5 people from our church community and 4-5 people from our larger community. In this way, we can gain a larger perspective on God's mission here in Defiance.

To delve a little deeper, and since we are reading the little book, Emerging Ministry: Being Church Today, maybe it would be important for us to answer the second question at the end of chapter one: "What is the 'mission history' of your church community? Discuss the manner in which your church came into being - when, where, who, how and why?" Why would this be important?

Additionally, how could we answer the 4th question: "What does it mean to be the church as we live? Where are the new wilderness roads that are emerging around us? Where are the new wilderness roads to which you are being called, along which perhaps you are already walking?"

So, what do you think?

Peace,
Tim