What Would Perpetua Say?

“What would Perpetua say?”  During the mission trip in July, the question became a constant reminder of our purpose and a way to maintain a good attitude.  Hopefully it can do the same for you as well.

At our host church’s Tuesday night prayer service, the speaker told the congregation the story of Perpetua, a young Christian woman who was put to death around the year 203 because of her faith.  He made sure that we all understood the level of suffering and agony that she and her companions endured before being killed in the arena in front of a cheering crowd.  As her father pleaded with her to renounce her faith so that her life would be spared, Perpetua remained adamant, declaring “I cannot call myself anything else than what I am, a Christian.”  Her love for Christ was so strong that she actually desired torture and death in order to be faithful to him.

During the week of the mission trip, when any of us would begin to complain about the hot, sweaty, dirty work we were doing, someone was sure to ask, “What would Perpetua say?”  If she was willing and eager to go through all that she did because of her commitment to Christ, certainly we could handle whatever we were dealing with because of ours.

The speaker at the prayer service told the story of Perpetua for a reason.  When we feel inconvenienced and weary because of our service to the Lord, it is good to remember that people like Perpetua have served and given so much more than we ever will.  Not only this, but they did it eagerly and cheerfully because of the love they had for Christ, and their desire to give their all to him.  Are we willing to follow Perpetua’s example, even if it does not lead to torture and death?  Will we find ways to serve Christ and build up his kingdom?

Our denomination has just adopted a new translation of the Heidelberg Catechism, an explanation of our faith from the sixteenth century.  It is divided into three sections: guilt, grace, and gratitude.  First, we acknowledge our sinfulness and our need for God’s help.  Second, we recognize and celebrate the way that God has redeemed us.  Third, we live lives filled with expressions of thankfulness for what God has done for us.  Perpetua is an example of the third step: bringing honor to God by what we do as a grateful response for all that he has done for us.  At times, our expressions of gratitude to God may be inconvenient, uncomfortable, or even downright painful.  But if Christ is at the center of our existence and it is something that honors him, how can we do anything other than that?

Being a Christian is more than putting your faith in Christ and accepting his gift of grace for you.  It means committing yourself to giving him your everything.  Spending a  couple of hours at church on Sunday morning is only the start of what it means to be a faithful member of Christ’s church.  We can each find ways to participate in the church’s ministries: not for the purpose of maintaining our institution, but for bringing Christ’s light and love into a hurting world.  There is so much we can do as a congregation, in addition to what we are already doing, if we all do something very simple.  When we have the opportunity to do something to build up Christ’s kingdom but we hesitate because it will require a sacrifice, we can ask ourselves a simple question: “What would Perpetua do?”

Augustine, on God

Augustine of Hippo is the most influential Christian thinker between the apostle Paul and the Reformation (although Thomas Aquinas may be able to give Augustine a run for his money).  This excerpt from the beginnng of Augustine's Confessions is an example why.  It offers more insight for contemplation than you'll find in entire books of theology, or an entire lifetime of a preacher's sermons.  While translators typically present it as prose, I've laid it out in a poetic form to make it easier to reflect upon.  (The translation from the original Latin is by R. S. Pine-Coffin).

You, my God, are

      supreme,

      utmost in goodness,

      mightiest and all-powerful,

      most merciful and most just.

You are the most hidden from us and yet the most present amongst us,

the most beautiful and yet the most strong,

ever enduring and yet we cannot comprehend you.

You are unchangeable and yet you change all things.

You are never new, never old, and yet all things have new life from you.

You are the unseen power that brings decline upon the proud.

You are ever active, yet always at rest.

You gather all things to yourself, though you suffer no need.

You support, you fill, and you protect all things.

You create them, nourish them, and bring them to perfection.

You seek to make them your own, though you lack for nothing.

You love your creatures, but with a gentle love.

You treasure them, but without apprehension.

You grieve for wrong, but suffer no pain.

You can be angry and yet serene.

Your works are varied, but your purpose is one and the same.

You welcome all who come to you, though you never lost them.

You are never in need yet are glad to gain,

never covetous yet you exact a return for your gifts.  

We give abundantly to you so that we may deserve a reward;

      yet which of us has anything that does not come from you?

You repay us what we deserve, and yet you owe nothing to any.

You release us from our debts, but you lose nothing thereby.

You are my God,

      my Life,

      my holy Delight.

But is this enough to say of you?

      Can any man say enough when he speaks of you?

Yet woe betide those who are silent about you!

      For even those who are most gifted with speech cannot find words to describe you.

Can I Come to Your Church?

“Can I come to your church? I’m gay.”

No one’s ever asked me that question.  Maybe it’s because churches in general have a reputation for being less than welcoming to homosexuals.  Maybe it’s because they’ve heard comments from congregation members which give the clear message that there’s no place for gays in our church.

Our church prides itself in being a caring, supportive family of faith that welcomes and includes everyone.  As someone once said to me, “We take in strays.”  But are there some “strays” that we turn away?  Are we failing to live up to our calling and identity?

Some people in our congregation believe that homosexuality is a sin, perhaps worse than most other sins.  Others in our church think that sexual orientation doesn’t make any difference.  Whatever you believe, I hope we’d all agree that it’s not easy to be gay in our society.  It’s a burden.  And Scripture tells us to carry each other’s burdens (Galatians 6:2).  When we turn a cold shoulder to someone who is gay, we block ourselves from being able to accompany them as they seek to be faithful to God in circumstances that those of us who are straight can only imagine.  We force them to carry their burden in secret, afraid of how we might respond to them.  The devil loves secrets; when we keep our struggles in the shadows, he can use them to torture us and block path for us to experience Christ’s grace.

We churches are not doing a very good job of letting gays know that there is a place for them in God’s family.  A recent survey of 910 homosexuals in western Pennsylvania, conducted by Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health, reveals that 75% of them have heard negative comments about homosexuals in their congregations.  Only 5% believe that their church would respond positively if they “came out,” while 80% believe they would face a negative reaction.

I’ve heard many well-intentioned people say that we should “hate the sin, not the sinner.”  The words that jump out in that statement are “hate” and “sinner:” certainly not words of welcome and invitation!  While it may not be as catchy, it’s more Christ-like to say, “We love you.  We will work together with you to discover God’s grace.”  During his earthly ministry, Jesus spent a lot of time with the notorious sinners of the day, like tax collectors and prostitutes.  I can’t picture Jesus saying to them, “I hate your sin, not you.”  Rather, I believe he looked at them as individuals, as people he loved deeply.  As he shared his love with them, they were able to discover ways in which he could take their shame and misery, and work a new thing in their lives.  As the church, we are the community of Jesus Christ.  It’s up to us to live up to whom we say that we are.

“Can I come to your church? I’m gay.”  If someone asks you that question, I hope you’ll answer, “You are a child of God, and deeply loved.  Welcome!”

What Is the Retirement Age for Christians?

Retirement is a wonderful reward after years of hard work.  And graduation is the joyful completion of years of study.  They are both blessings, but we run into problems when we think that the retirement or graduation applies to other parts of our lives.  You don’t graduate from parenthood, for example.  Even when your children are full grown adults with children of their own, they still need you to be their mother and father.  You can’t retire from being a loving and faithful husband or wife.  And you better not retire from housekeeping and lawn care!

There’s one other thing you can’t retire or graduate from: being a disciple of Jesus Christ.  When you claim him as your Lord and Savior, it’s forever.  You never “graduate” from learning about God and his plan for your life: how could we ever know everything about the One who is infinite?  And there’s no retirement from faithful service to God.

It’s not unusual, when I invite someone to take part in an activity or ministry of our church, for them to reply, “Oh, I’ve done that for years already. Let someone else take a turn at it.”  Apparently they believe that they’ve already done their fair share of service to the Lord through the church, and it’s time to “retire.”  Not only does an attitude like this deprive the church of the service of someone’s experienced, but it deprives the person of the joy that comes from partnering with God in his plans for the world.

Plus, it’s just plain un-Biblical.  Nobody in Scripture “retired” from serving God, regardless of how old they were.  For example, Abraham was 75 years old when God called him to begin a new adventure (Genesis 12:4).  To my knowledge, the only person in Scripture who claimed to have completed his work in God’s name is Paul, who wrote to his friend Timothy that he had “fought the good fight” and “finished the race” (2 Timothy 4:7).  But the only reason Paul thought that he was finished was because he knew that his life was about to be over.  And even then, he was still offering instruction and encouragement to others.

To say that we never retire or graduate from serving the Lord does not, however, mean that you have to continue to serve him in the same way.  As Ecclessiastes 3:1 puts it, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”  When one “season” of service has ended, it’s time to look for a new “season.”  Maybe you can’t pick strawberries for the Strawberry Festival anymore.  But can you sing in the choir, or teach Sunday School, or visit the shut-ins?  And you can always do the most powerful, most important thing of all: pray.

Violet Johnston served God through Old Union for many years.  Even when she was wheelchair-bound, she continued to serve any way she could.  Eventually, her disability was so severe that all she could do was tear up day-old bread to make breadcrumbs to feed to the birds.  But she did it up until the time that she finished her own race.  Like Abraham and Paul, she knew there was no retirement from service to our Lord.

Spiritual Muscle Memory

We have the ability to train our bodies to move in precise, exact ways without even thinking about it.  Basketball players spend hours practicing foul shots in order to be able to make the shot during the game.  Violinists have to put their fingers on the exact right places on the neck of the instrument, and trombonists must position the slides on their instruments in the exact right place in order to play the note on pitch.  Jazz legend Jaco Pastorius did the same thing with his bass guitar, which was specially adapted for this purpose.  Good typists know exactly where each letter is on the keyboard without even thinking about it.

This skill is called “muscle memory:” the development of a procedural memory that comes through repetition.  Eventually, it becomes second nature, and you’re able to move your fingers or legs in a precise way without even being aware that you are doing it.

The key to developing muscle memory is repetition.  You do the same thing over and over again until you’re sick of it.  And if what you’re trying to do is play the right note on a violin, everyone within hearing distance might also get sick of it as well!  Eventually, with enough time and practice, “muscle memory” kicks in.  On demand, you can play a D flat on the trombone. Your arms automatically give the ball exactly the right push to make the basket.  You don’t even think about which finger you’re using to press “T” on the keyboard.  It doesn’t happen overnight.  But with enough patience and persistence, you develop muscle memory.

What is true for our physical muscles is also true for our spiritual muscles.  Over time and with practice, our spirits are able to develop seemingly-automatic patterns.  Then, when a particular challenge comes our way, our spirits are properly prepared to turn to the resources that God provides for us at such times.  I have seen people far-gone into dementia spring to spiritual alertness when they heard the words of institution of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.  A family who recently experienced a devastating loss found great comfort by repeating the Lord’s Prayer.  Many people have told me about the comfort they find during times of need or of loneliness through the old familiar hymns that they sang for years.  These are some people who reaped the benefits of spiritual muscle memory, because their spirits effortlessly found comfort and guidance when they needed it.

Ritual and tradition play an important part in our lives, because they are the ways that we develop spiritual muscle memory, which we can rely upon when we need it.  Our spiritual habits, from the familiar liturgy of Sunday worship to the regular routine of daily personal devotionals, help to train us so that it becomes easier and easier to recognize and respond to God’s leading.

How’s your spiritual muscle memory?

The Benefits of Faith

We Christians believe that faith in Christ will lead to unimaginable blessings in eternity.  But did you know that your faith enriches your life in this world as well?  Maybe you already knew this.  But now psychologists can verify the positive role that faith can play in your life. 

Just take a look at some of the following findings:

·         According to the American Psychological Association, a recent study found that “higher levels of religious faith and spirituality were associated with several positive mental health outcomes, including more optimism about life and higher resilience to stress.”

·         According to the National Association of School Psychologists, ““Children reared in a system of faith often find great solace in formal ceremonial practices during times of stress and uncertainty.”

·         Dr. Lisa Berkman, an epidemiologist at the Yale University School of Medicine, writes that “‘having a strong faith and being embedded in a web of relationships like churchgoing have definite health benefits.”

There are some who claim that committing your life to Christ will bring blessings in this life, but they focus on things such as wealth, popularity, health, and success in business or education.  That’s a great way to pack people into your church: join us and your life will be a bed of roses.  But I wonder how they explain why nearly everyone in Scripture who followed God encountered difficulties and struggles.  As 2 Timothy 3:12 puts it, “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

The benefits of a life of faith have nothing to do with fancy houses, big cars, and Ivy League educations.  They have a lot more to do with discovering resources beyond yourself when the house burns down, the car is totaled, and you flunk out of school.  The God who loves us and lives within us provides a sense of meaning and purpose, so that we know we aren’t just muddling through life on our own.  And we have an assurance that there is a greater plan at work beyond what we are able to recognize on our own.

Yes, our Christian faith is a celebration of a life beyond this one, in which all pain, suffering, confusion, and loneliness are wiped away.  Particularly as we celebrate Easter, we know that when we join Christ in our own resurrection, we will experience unimaginable joy, glory, and peace.  Otherwise, as Paul wrote, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19).  Our expectation of the glory to come vindicates our present sufferings and struggles.

But I’m not a Christian simply for the benefits of the afterlife.  I’m a Christian because it’s the best, most satisfying way to live this life.  I’m glad to hear that the psychologists agree.

More Than a Building

When you say “church” to most people, the image that pops into their mind is a building, often with a steeple on top.  We don’t have a steeple at Old Union, but “church” often means “church building” for us, just like everyone else.

It wasn’t always that way at Old Union.  For the first sixteen years of our church’s life we had no building at all.  Each Sunday the congregation met in a grove of trees beside a creek.  In bad weather they put a tarp over their makeshift pulpit.  That was it.  For the next nineteen years we worshiped in a log chapel at “Covenanter Woods” beside Fetzer Road before moving to our present location.  When that building burnt to the ground in 1905 our forebears built what is now the main part of our sanctuary; an addition in 1958 and our expansion in 2009 gave us the building we have today.

It’s ironic that the building has become such a major focus of our church’s identity, considering the fact that we had no building at all during those first years, and that the oldest part of our current building is only half as old as the congregation.  We focus a lot of attention on our building, whether it’s fund-raisers to pay off the mortgage, policies to make sure it’s being used correctly, or comments about its care and upkeep.

I have news for you: the building does not define our congregation.  Old Union didn’t become a different church when they moved from Straight Run to Covenanter Woods.  We didn’t change when the building burnt down, or when the additions were put on.  Brick and mortar, wood and glass do not make us who we are.

Over the last couple years a number of churches have left our denomination because of policy changes.  In virtually every case, issues over who gets the church property are the focus of the debate and final decision.  I’ve heard of some churches, and presbyteries, engaging in blatantly un-Christian activity to get or keep the church property.  That’s the kind of thing you do when your building is the most important thing about your church.

We can learn a few other things from Old Union’s founding generations about what matters in a church.  It wasn’t the building, but it also wasn’t the pastor: they had to share Rev. Williams with five other congregations in a time when travel was difficult.  It also wasn’t the music: they only sang the psalms, without an organ or any other musical instrument, in a style that by all accounts was far from inspiring.

The true identity of our church doesn’t come from its building, its pastor, or many of the other things that we think are so important.  Our church is defined by the quality of the fellowship its people share and by the mission that Christ has put before us.

Spend some time this month asking yourself: what makes Old Union the church that it is?  And what can I do to build it up?

Peter