Is Jesus alive or dead? It may seem like a no-brainer question. It isn't. It is THE question of Easter.
If Jesus is dead, then we follow just a moral code. We follow the teachings of a great Jewish rabbi, who taught a radically new way of living in harmony with God and neighbor. We study the writings of his followers and learn about him. And Easter is just a nice holiday in the spring when we celebrate a theoretical resurrection that he talked about. And our only hope is in our own machinations. We can only hope in human leadership, in human power, in human solutions to our trials and problems.
BUT, if Jesus is alive, we follow a living, active Christ who still walks among us, works miracles among us, and stays active in our lives. He is not a moral code, he is the way, the truth and the life. He is not a great teacher, he is a living lesson, teaching our hearts daily through his living Word. We don't just learn about him, we come to know him. He becomes a friend, healer, teacher, counselor and Lord. He is our hope and strength. We can rely on him, not just on ourselves. We can rely on the King of the universe. We can trust in the Creator of all things to care tenderly for us in all situations. And we can have HOPE.
So, I ask you again, is your Jesus dead or alive?
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
A Spring in My Step
It's here! Officially and unofficially, Spring is here. Things are blooming in variegated tones. Birds are fluttering in all their glorious regalia. Insects are flourishing in the absence of a hard freeze. Blooming dogwoods announce the coming of Easter. Yes, Spring has sprung and it's WONDERFUL!
Why is it we all seem to smile a little broader, walk a little lighter, and feel a little more energetic at the first breath of Spring? Some people can't wait to get outside. There are those who can't wait to garden; those who look forward to spring sports; and those who just enjoy more hours of daylight.
Not me. I've got it inborn AND ingrained in me that there's one thing the HAS to be done before all that other foolishness - SPRING CLEANING! My mother did it. Her mother did it. And I'm pretty sure her mother's mother did it!
It starts in the closets and drawers. All the winter clothing is moved into the attic or spare closets. The spring and summer clothing is brought out and cleaned, repaired, sorted and put into its proper place. Some things are given to charity or neighbors or family. Nothing ever goes to waste as long as the fabric is still good, for it can always be sewn into something else.
Then every square inch of the house - interior and exterior - must be cleaned, polished, and sparkling. No boot camp Sargent could get any more work out of two kids and a reluctant dad than my mom!
I joke about it, but when all was done, it was something to behold. It gave us a sense of pride and togetherness like nothing else. It made us all stand a little taller and step a little livelier, knowing how much we had put into caring for our home.
Nowadays, I find myself doing a sort of internal "spring cleaning." With the coming of each spring and the rebirth it represents, I tend to search deep within myself for the wintery things to put aside. There are dark closets of the soul - pieces of unconfessed pain or fear I insist on bearing alone - to be purged. There are some ideas I've outgrown, yet still cling to that need to be left to Christians less mature in the faith. There are places I've let go, neglected, that I need to pay attention to, polish up, and find a sense of pride in for the sake of the gospel.
Most of all, spring is the time to remember that all the rebirth, all the growth, all of this wouldn't be possible without the resurrection. I would be blinded to all these possibilities if I were still living in the darkness of insanity that was my life without the forgiveness, grace and love born in Jesus Christ and won by his death and resurrection.
John 17:26 (NLT) says "I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.”
Each spring cleaning, I grow a little closer to the person God wants me to be. Jesus keeps revealing more and more to me the more I open myself to Him and his teachings by emptying myself of my "stuff." And each time I feel a sense of pride as we grow closer. I can stand a little taller knowing I have tended my spiritual garden. I can step a little livelier knowing my burdens have been lifted and I am forgiven and free.
Spring cleaning anyone?
Why is it we all seem to smile a little broader, walk a little lighter, and feel a little more energetic at the first breath of Spring? Some people can't wait to get outside. There are those who can't wait to garden; those who look forward to spring sports; and those who just enjoy more hours of daylight.
Not me. I've got it inborn AND ingrained in me that there's one thing the HAS to be done before all that other foolishness - SPRING CLEANING! My mother did it. Her mother did it. And I'm pretty sure her mother's mother did it!
It starts in the closets and drawers. All the winter clothing is moved into the attic or spare closets. The spring and summer clothing is brought out and cleaned, repaired, sorted and put into its proper place. Some things are given to charity or neighbors or family. Nothing ever goes to waste as long as the fabric is still good, for it can always be sewn into something else.
Then every square inch of the house - interior and exterior - must be cleaned, polished, and sparkling. No boot camp Sargent could get any more work out of two kids and a reluctant dad than my mom!
I joke about it, but when all was done, it was something to behold. It gave us a sense of pride and togetherness like nothing else. It made us all stand a little taller and step a little livelier, knowing how much we had put into caring for our home.
Nowadays, I find myself doing a sort of internal "spring cleaning." With the coming of each spring and the rebirth it represents, I tend to search deep within myself for the wintery things to put aside. There are dark closets of the soul - pieces of unconfessed pain or fear I insist on bearing alone - to be purged. There are some ideas I've outgrown, yet still cling to that need to be left to Christians less mature in the faith. There are places I've let go, neglected, that I need to pay attention to, polish up, and find a sense of pride in for the sake of the gospel.
Most of all, spring is the time to remember that all the rebirth, all the growth, all of this wouldn't be possible without the resurrection. I would be blinded to all these possibilities if I were still living in the darkness of insanity that was my life without the forgiveness, grace and love born in Jesus Christ and won by his death and resurrection.
John 17:26 (NLT) says "I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.”
Each spring cleaning, I grow a little closer to the person God wants me to be. Jesus keeps revealing more and more to me the more I open myself to Him and his teachings by emptying myself of my "stuff." And each time I feel a sense of pride as we grow closer. I can stand a little taller knowing I have tended my spiritual garden. I can step a little livelier knowing my burdens have been lifted and I am forgiven and free.
Spring cleaning anyone?
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Change from within
The Nones. The Non Church. SBNRs (spiritual but not religious). Whatever they call themselves, these are a growing population in American culture and throughout the world of people who are saying I believe in God, faith, and spirituality, but not in the church or organized religion. When I say growing, I don't mean by one or two a day. I mean by leaps and bounds!
In the 1960's I remember a phrase that called Christians to task. Attributed to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, headlines screamed at us that "God is Dead." In 1966 Time magazine ran a cover story asking the question, "Is God Dead?"
(Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,835309,00.html#ixzz1pDAlu9tX)
Then the Beatles came out and proclaimed they were more popular that God! It seemed that everyone was proclaiming the demise of God in the 60's and 70's. Not so now. Now people are holding fast to God, but claiming that it's the church that's irrelevant in their lives. They may be right. Yet, their approach may be a bit of an overreaction. As the proverb goes, I fear they may be throwing out the baby with the bath water.
In 1985, I began ministry as a woman in a predominately man's field. As I trained in seminary, there were many times I wanted to quit. There were warnings from female professors of the obstacles facing a woman in ministry. There were horror stories of women out in the parish and the ungodly things done to them by churches to run them off. There were my own field education experiences with horrific encounters of my own. Yet, a mild mannered, soft spoken, gentle spirited, favorite professor of mine told me something I will never forget. She shared with me that she, too, had often thought of giving up the fight to serve out her calling in the church. "But," she said, "the best way to effect change is from the inside." I never forgot that, and I have found it to be true. People on the outside throwing stones almost never change things. Martin Luther was a priest, not someone on the sidelines. Jesus was a faithful Jew, not a casual observer. They confronted the things within their organized religions that they felt were unjust or out of whack and they worked to change things. The founder of my own denomination, John Wesley, didn't set out to start a new religion. He just wanted to reach the poor and disenfranchised. It was the Revolutionary War that forced his hand and made him relent to demands to separate from the Church of England because the American colonies wouldn't go there to receive the sacraments.
Needless to say, I stayed in the church and worked to change things. I can proudly say that things for the young women in the church today are much easier because of trailblazers before me, pathmakers like me, and all of us that chose to stay and fight the difficult battles instead of go off and start our own woman-friendly church. Today women in ministry are common in almost all Protestant denominations. Our seminary graduating classes are right at 50% female!
What if all the Nones, the Non Churchers, the SBNRs and such were to help us reform the church? What if they stayed around and became the prophetic voices calling us to faithfulness? What if they turned over some tables and called out some hypocrites and challenged the status quo? Don't we need that in the church to stay balanced? At least engage the church in friendly debate!
23 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. 24 Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel! (Matthew 23:23-24)
Jesus didn't hesitate to call out the good church people of his time! Maybe he was the first SBNR.....
In the 1960's I remember a phrase that called Christians to task. Attributed to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, headlines screamed at us that "God is Dead." In 1966 Time magazine ran a cover story asking the question, "Is God Dead?"
(Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,835309,00.html#ixzz1pDAlu9tX)
Then the Beatles came out and proclaimed they were more popular that God! It seemed that everyone was proclaiming the demise of God in the 60's and 70's. Not so now. Now people are holding fast to God, but claiming that it's the church that's irrelevant in their lives. They may be right. Yet, their approach may be a bit of an overreaction. As the proverb goes, I fear they may be throwing out the baby with the bath water.
In 1985, I began ministry as a woman in a predominately man's field. As I trained in seminary, there were many times I wanted to quit. There were warnings from female professors of the obstacles facing a woman in ministry. There were horror stories of women out in the parish and the ungodly things done to them by churches to run them off. There were my own field education experiences with horrific encounters of my own. Yet, a mild mannered, soft spoken, gentle spirited, favorite professor of mine told me something I will never forget. She shared with me that she, too, had often thought of giving up the fight to serve out her calling in the church. "But," she said, "the best way to effect change is from the inside." I never forgot that, and I have found it to be true. People on the outside throwing stones almost never change things. Martin Luther was a priest, not someone on the sidelines. Jesus was a faithful Jew, not a casual observer. They confronted the things within their organized religions that they felt were unjust or out of whack and they worked to change things. The founder of my own denomination, John Wesley, didn't set out to start a new religion. He just wanted to reach the poor and disenfranchised. It was the Revolutionary War that forced his hand and made him relent to demands to separate from the Church of England because the American colonies wouldn't go there to receive the sacraments.
Needless to say, I stayed in the church and worked to change things. I can proudly say that things for the young women in the church today are much easier because of trailblazers before me, pathmakers like me, and all of us that chose to stay and fight the difficult battles instead of go off and start our own woman-friendly church. Today women in ministry are common in almost all Protestant denominations. Our seminary graduating classes are right at 50% female!
What if all the Nones, the Non Churchers, the SBNRs and such were to help us reform the church? What if they stayed around and became the prophetic voices calling us to faithfulness? What if they turned over some tables and called out some hypocrites and challenged the status quo? Don't we need that in the church to stay balanced? At least engage the church in friendly debate!
23 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. 24 Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel! (Matthew 23:23-24)
Jesus didn't hesitate to call out the good church people of his time! Maybe he was the first SBNR.....
Thursday, March 8, 2012
GCP Really Do Exist
One of my guilty pleasures is watching Desperate Housewives on ABC on Sunday evenings. I know, it's smut and I shouldn't be filling my mind with it. I'll confess my sin right now. This past Sunday, there was a new show that followed, GCB. In my naivite, I watched it. It wasn't until after the wretched thing that I looked online and found out what the initials stand for - Good Christian B----(rhymes with itches). The show itself was amusing enough, not too different from the gals on Wysterian Lane, just set in Texas instead of the Midwest. The main difference was their motivation for lying, cheating, stealing and dirty-dealing was they were doing it in the name of Jesus!
I realize I am beginning to rant like he-who-shall-not-be-named-conservative-radio-personality, but I simply must cry foul at this characterization of Christian on nation TV during prime time. It's just wrong! If the show were Good Muslim B's or Good Buddhist B's or Good Jewish B's, there'd be a lawsuit somewhere. Yet, somehow we Christians are fair game. Dana Carvey's Church Lady was funny and close enough to reality to be an actual parody. This show is such a ludicrous charicature that it's disgusting. It plays on how many non-Christians already view us as hypocritical, judgmental, and unsympathetic to real life issues (which isn't true of the majority of Christians I've known).
Christians have been persecuted since the crucifixion of Christ himself. From being stoned to death like Stephen to being thrown into the Coliseum with hungry lions for the Romans' entertainment, it has been rough for Christians through the ages. So, a little potty humor on TV is nothing in comparison. Still, I am severely disappointed. I am disappointed in my fellow Americans who increasingly find put-downs and sarcasm entertaining. It seems that the more condescending and destructive the dialog is, the more popular the sitcom or dramedy. No wonder our children are smart-mouthed by the time they can talk. No wonder our politicians sling more than mud these days. No wonder we become more and more hardened to the insults and foul mouths that surround us daily.
What happened to common courtesy? What happened to manners? What happened to the "Golden Rule?" Why are we allowing ourselves to be constantly bombarded with this level of conflict?
I usually tie my remarks back to the Bible. I usually try to redeem the story for the cause of Christ. I feel it is my responsibility as a minister of the Gospel to grab every chance to speak a good word for Jesus. So here it is: But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
1 John 4:7-9 That's pretty clear. Is it loving to diss another? Is it loving to question their character? Is it loving to put them down? to speak ill of them? to make fun of them? Where is the LOVE?
I realize I am beginning to rant like he-who-shall-not-be-named-conservative-radio-personality, but I simply must cry foul at this characterization of Christian on nation TV during prime time. It's just wrong! If the show were Good Muslim B's or Good Buddhist B's or Good Jewish B's, there'd be a lawsuit somewhere. Yet, somehow we Christians are fair game. Dana Carvey's Church Lady was funny and close enough to reality to be an actual parody. This show is such a ludicrous charicature that it's disgusting. It plays on how many non-Christians already view us as hypocritical, judgmental, and unsympathetic to real life issues (which isn't true of the majority of Christians I've known).
Christians have been persecuted since the crucifixion of Christ himself. From being stoned to death like Stephen to being thrown into the Coliseum with hungry lions for the Romans' entertainment, it has been rough for Christians through the ages. So, a little potty humor on TV is nothing in comparison. Still, I am severely disappointed. I am disappointed in my fellow Americans who increasingly find put-downs and sarcasm entertaining. It seems that the more condescending and destructive the dialog is, the more popular the sitcom or dramedy. No wonder our children are smart-mouthed by the time they can talk. No wonder our politicians sling more than mud these days. No wonder we become more and more hardened to the insults and foul mouths that surround us daily.
What happened to common courtesy? What happened to manners? What happened to the "Golden Rule?" Why are we allowing ourselves to be constantly bombarded with this level of conflict?
I usually tie my remarks back to the Bible. I usually try to redeem the story for the cause of Christ. I feel it is my responsibility as a minister of the Gospel to grab every chance to speak a good word for Jesus. So here it is: But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
1 John 4:7-9 That's pretty clear. Is it loving to diss another? Is it loving to question their character? Is it loving to put them down? to speak ill of them? to make fun of them? Where is the LOVE?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)