Henry's Christmas

This wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen.  If there’s one thing that should be predictable throughout the year, it’s Christmas.  Henry looked forward to it every year, with all of its traditions and customs.  And Henry liked traditions.  When things went the way they are supposed to go – the comfortable, enjoyable way they’re supposed to go – well, nothing could be better than that.

But ever since Thanksgiving, nothing had gone the way it was supposed to.  He and his wife Louise were supposed to take the grandchildren to the tree-lighting ceremony in town square on the day after Thanksgiving, like they always do.  But their daughter-in-law decided to take them Black Friday shopping with her – Henry shuddered to think about how little Timmy must have hated that!  He and Louise went to the tree-lighting anyway, but instead of the traditional singing of “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” that everyone joined in on, a teenage band with guitars and drums played an awful racket that was supposed to attract a younger crowd.  Well, it sure didn’t attract Henry.  He left in disgust, went home, and played his Nate King Cole Christmas album.  But…it just wasn’t the same.

The next day wasn’t any better, when Henry got the Christmas lights out of the attic.  Apparently some mice got into the box during the summer and had chewed the wires.  The whole box of lights was ruined.  So Henry had to brave the frantic crowds at the shopping plaza to get new lights.  He hoped to get a set just like the ones he had always put up: red plastic bells with a warm yellow light in them.  He went to five different stores, and couldn’t find them.  There were green bells (absurd!), and red bells with bright flashing lights (ugly!), and silver bells that played “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” (disgusting!).  As a black mood settled over Henry’s heart, he grabbed a bunch of the plainest looking red lights he could find, went home, and put them up.  The color was right, but…it just wasn’t the same.

The following morning was Sunday, and Henry woke up with a sense of joyful expectation.  If there’s one place where you can count on the Christmas traditions being maintained, it was church!  He and Louise pulled into the parking lot at 10:45, and Henry walked into the sanctuary expecting to see the Christmas tree up front, wreaths on the windows, and special Christmas banners on the walls.  But the church had a new pastor who had other ideas.  Apparently, Henry was informed, Christians don’t begin celebrating Christmas until December 25.  The weeks up to then are devoted to something called Advent.  Henry had never heard of Advent before, and he didn’t like it.  Instead of a month of singing familiar Christmas carols, he had to sing strange hymns about waiting for the Messiah to come.  And the pastor informed the congregation that because the Christmas tree was originally a pagan symbol, it was not proper to have one in a church.  Henry hadn’t been sure what he thought of this new preacher, but now he was convinced.  He didn’t like her one bit.  She was ruining Christmas for him.  It was his church, and he loved it.  But…it just wasn’t the same.

And this was how the entire month of December went for Henry.  It seemed as though every holiday tradition and custom was being disrupted.  None of the things that he could count on were happening.  For Henry, it just wasn’t Christmas without watching the Grinch and the Peanuts Christmas specials on TV.  But he had to miss both of them: the bowling league Christmas party and his grand-daughter’s school program made sure of that.  Oh, he could have recorded them on his VCR (he still had one of those), or bought the DVD, or had his son pulled up on the computer for him.  But there was something special about watching them on live television.  These other things were alright, but…it just wasn’t the same.

Henry enjoyed the holiday traditions so much that even sending out Christmas cards was a joy for him.  But when their son come to take a picture for the card of him and Louise in their Christmas sweaters sitting by the fireplace, he said, “Dad, you’re not going to write a brag letter like you always do, are you?  People don’t really care what the weather was like on your vacation, or what color you painted the garage.  Can you give it a break, for just one year?”  Henry hated to hear his son describe his Christmas letters like that.  To be honest, writing them helped him re-live the best parts of the past year and enjoy them all over again.  But to keep peace in the family, he decided not to write on this year.  So he sent out the cards with no letter enclosed.  It was fine, but…it just wasn’t the same.

Even Henry’s doctor was ruining his Christmas.  Back in September, during his annual physical, he told Henry that he was in danger of developing diabetes and that he should cut down on the sweets.  The doctor’s advice wouldn’t have been so bad if Henry was the only one who heard it.  But for some reason, he had let Louise come with him, and she took Dr. Weintraub’s words to heart.  And unfortunately, she hadn’t forgotten them by Christmas.  Instead of making her traditional lady fingers, Louise found a recipe for sugar-free Christmas fruit cookies.  She confiscated his stash of candy canes and replaced them with diabetic-friendly peppermint candies.  Henry ate them, but…it just wasn’t the same.

Henry put a lot of thought into the gifts he gave, but this year wouldn’t go as planned.  Louise’s Secret Santa at her book club had bought her the exact same scarf that Henry had already wrapped and put under the tree.  His granddaughter Emily had announced last week that she couldn’t stand the music of the boy band that she couldn’t get enough of last month…the same boy band whose concert video Henry had spent weeks to find.  Come Christmas morning they would open their presents…but it wouldn’t be the same.  Even the weather was part of the conspiracy to take away Henry’s Christmas.  There had been a few hard frosts and couple of flurries early in the month, but lately they were stuck in a warm spell that would last into next week.  How can you celebrate Christmas when the grass is trying to grow and you don’t even need to wear a jacket?

But then, just when it seemed as though Christmas couldn’t get any worse, Henry and Louise got two phone calls that drove the final nails into the Christmas coffin.  The first was from their daughter who had just started a new job in Boston.  Cathy was cancelling her trip home for the holidays because of a big project at work that had to be finished by the end of the year.  She would stay in Boston and spend the day with her new boyfriend’s family.  It would be the first Christmas ever that the whole family wouldn’t be together.  They would still get together with their son and his family for the Christmas Eve service at the church (unless the pastor had cancelled it!), and on Christmas morning to watch the kids open their presents.  But without their daughter there…it wouldn’t be the same.

The second phone call came at noon on Christmas Eve.  It was their daughter-in-law Ellen: the kids had a terrible stomach flu and haven’t been able to keep anything down since the night before.  The pediatrician said that it would pass in a day or two, but that they needed to stay in bed and drink lots of fluids.  Maybe they’d feel well enough the next morning to open their presents, but there was no way they’d be able to go to church on Christmas Eve.  When he hung up the phone, Henry told Louise the sad news.  “Well,” she replied, “I guess it’s just going to be the two of us at church this evening.” 

But Henry had a different idea.  His Christmas had already been turned topsy-turvy; why try to salvage any of it?  “Look, Honey,” he replied, “you and Sam and Ellen should go to church, and I’ll stay with the kids.  They’ll want you in the choir, and Sam is supposed to help with the offering.  I’m sure Ellen will appreciate a break from the sick kids for a couple hours.”  So while Louise got ready to go to church, Henry walked past the tree with all the wrong presents under it, turned on the pathetic Christmas lights, and went past the green grass to the garage to drive to his son’s house.  By the time Henry got there, the children were in bed getting some much-needed rest.  Ellen assured Henry that if he just checked on Emily and Timmy from time to time, they should be fine until they got back from church.  With that, she and Sam headed out the door and Henry found himself in a quiet house, alone except for two sick sleeping grandchildren down the hall.

“Well,” he thought sarcastically to himself, “this is just the perfect end to a perfect Christmas season.  Stuck here babysitting, instead of enjoying the holiday with the family at church.  This isn’t the way things are supposed to be.”  Feeling more than a little sorry for himself, he plopped down onto the couch, too miserable even to turn on the TV to watch Clarence the angel help George Bailey discover that It’s a Wonderful Life.  As he sat alone, in a room illuminated only by the Christmas tree lights, he noticed his son’s Bible sitting on the coffee table.  “Alright,” he thought, “if I can’t make it to church on Christmas Eve, I suppose the next best thing is to read the Christmas story while I sit here.”  He decided that, since he had plenty of time on his hands, he may as well start at the very beginning of the gospel of Luke and read the whole way through the story.

Henry was a Christian man, and had been for as long as he could remember.  He had sat through plenty of sermons explaining the importance of Christmas: God becoming man and entering the world to save us.  He hadn’t just heard it: he believed it and welcomed it.  In fact, at the heart of it all, that’s what really made Christmas so special for Henry.  The carols, the decorations, the family gatherings, and all the rest of the beloved traditions mattered only because of what was at the center of it all.  Henry knew that, even if he had to remind himself of it from time to time.  This was one of those times.  Nothing was going the way it was supposed to this Christmas.  But if he could just remember what it was all about, maybe the season wouldn’t be a total loss.  So partly out of duty, and partly to avoid boredom, Henry opened the Bible and began to read from the start of Luke’s gospel.

The story was familiar to Henry.  He had read it, and even acted it out, plenty of times.  As a young boy, he had been part of the Christmas pageants: once he even got to play Joseph.  So he knew the tale: Zechariah and Elizabeth found out that they would have a son, who would grow up to be John the Baptist to prepare the way for Jesus.  An angel told the virgin Mary that she would give birth to the Messiah.  She and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem, where she had her child and laid him in a manger.  An angel told the shepherds what happened, and where to find the baby.  Henry knew the story by heart, and loved every bit of it.

But tonight, on this Christmas Eve that just wasn’t the same, as he read the story alone in a dark and quiet house, even the familiar tale didn’t seem to be the same.  Was it because nothing was the way it was supposed to be in his own Christmas celebration this year?  Or was it because Henry wasn’t actually alone in the room: that God himself was there, explaining the story of Christ’s birth as he read the words on the page?  I’ll let you decide for yourself.  But as Henry read, it was as though he was reading it with new eyes.

The first Christmas was just like his Christmas: nothing happened the way it was supposed to.  An old couple like Zechariah and Elizabeth shouldn’t be having a baby; Henry chuckled to himself at the thought of Louise and him having a baby at their age.  And a young girl like Mary shouldn’t be having a baby either; Henry got a bit uncomfortable when he realized that Mary probably wasn’t much older than his granddaughter Emily.  Both births were miracles, of course: but the devout priest serving in the temple didn’t believe the news like you’d expect, the young peasant girl did.  Things seemed to be turned upside: as crazy as having 60 degree weather on Christmas Eve. 

Henry glanced up when he heard Timmy stir for a moment in his bed, but went on to read the song Mary sang after she was told that she would have a baby.  Her spirit sang, and her heart rejoiced.  Henry had listened to enough choir cantatas that his wife had sung in to be able to recognize that line.  But as he kept reading, he discovered why Mary was filled with such joy.  God had chosen her, insignificant little Mary of Nazareth, to play a huge role in his plan of salvation; she would be blessed for generations to come.  But Mary went on to praise God for the things he had done, and would do, that would disrupt the world.  Everything was going to change; nothing would be like it had always been.  The humble would be exalted and the hungry would be satisfied.  But the proud would be brought down, the mighty would lose their power, and the rich would lose their wealth. 

Henry let the Bible rest on his lap as this new thought seeped into his soul.  According to Mary’s song, the whole point to Christmas isn’t about keeping traditions, doing things the way they’re supposed to be done, and making sure that everything stays the same.  Christmas came because God wanted to shake things up!  The reason Christ was born was to fix things that had been broken, and to re-arrange what was out of balance.  Henry was the first to say that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  But the world had been broken before Jesus came, and God needed to fix it.  In fact, the world still needed fixing.  There were too many terrible stories on the news about children being killed and warfare in far-off countries, of politicians who don’t do anything but fight with each other, and greedy corporations putting their profit ahead of everything else.  No, things in the world couldn’t be the way they’ve always been if there was supposed to be peace on earth and good will to men.

Henry’s eyes fell upon the nativity scene that his son’s family had put up on a table in the corner of the room.  Everything in it was out of place: the Son of God born to a poor family without a decent roof over his head.  The news of his birth announced to a handful of shepherds working the night shift out in a remote pasture, instead of a huge crowd of people.  A group of pagan astrologers coming to pay homage, instead of the wise and holy religious leaders in Jerusalem.  Apparently, God wanted to shake things up and change everything.

Suddenly ashamed, Henry dropped his gaze to the floor where Timmy’s race cars were scattered about.  God came to change things, not just in the world around him, but things inside of Henry himself.  He could be a bit too quick to express his opinion, and too slow to listen to what other people had to say.  He talked about what a shame it was that there were needy people even in their own town, but he didn’t do much more than talk about it.  He loved his family, but didn’t always show Louise and everyone else the respect that they deserved.  Henry covered his face with both hands as a feeling of guilt washed over him.  He was selfish, prideful, and lazy.

At just that moment, Henry heard the church bell ring out.  Louise and Sam and Ellen and the rest of the congregation were getting ready to light their candles and sing “Silent Night.”  Christ the savior is born.  Everything was different now, and nothing was the same.  God had come to overturn a suffering world and to break through his own sin and shame.  Henry walked down the hallway to look at his sleeping grandchildren.  His Christmas wasn’t the same this year.  But now he understood, for the first time, that this is actually what Christmas is all about.  The world has changed, he had changed, and nothing will ever be the same again.  Thank God for that.

Anatomy of a Worship Service

We follow a pattern of worship at Old Union Presbyterian Church, modeled on the principles of worship in the Reformed tradition, that draws us into God’s presence, enables us to respond to his grace, and sends us out to live and act in his name.

Worship begins by coming into God’s presence.  As we gather, our greetings and conversations move us from being friends and family toward being fellow worshipers.  The progression begins as we enter the sanctuary.  It develops as the prelude music and the entrance of the choir and pastor focus our attention away from the matters that we brought with us into the sanctuary and toward the Lord whom we meet there.  After sharing announcements, the lighting of the candles represent for us the flame of the Spirit among us, so we may be even more fully aware of his presence.

When we recognize God’s presence, our first response is thanksgiving and praise.  With our opening hymn, we offer to God the honor and glory we know he deserves.  Our second response is an awareness that our sinfulness and brokenness render us unworthy to be in the presence of the Holy One.  We express this by confessing our sin to one another and to him.  Words from Scripture that proclaim his love and forgiveness not only assure us of God’s desire to be with us, but prompt even more praise to God, in the form of the “Gloria Patri” song and the choir anthem.

We are now ready not only to be in God’s presence but to listen to him.  We hear him in the reading of Scripture and then, by the working of the Holy Spirit, consider through the sermon how these ancient words continue to guide, challenge, comfort, and encourage us where we find ourselves today.  Following the sermon, we share a hymn to reinforce God’s message and to inspire us in our response to it.

It is not enough simply to hear God’s message: the hearing causes us to act.  Having heard God’s message to us, we lift up to him our prayers to thank him for how we have seen his grace in our lives, and to seek his favor for those in difficult circumstances.  Next, the offering is more than collecting money to finance the church’s ministry.  It symbolizes and expresses our willingness to offer all that we are and all that we have to the Lord whom we have encountered in worship.

We cannot stay in the Lord’s presence forever; he calls us to go into his world to proclaim his grace in word and in deed.  Our declaration of faith with the Apostles’ Creed reminds us of the message we carry with us.  The benediction (literally the “good word”) includes words of praise for the God whom we serve, a blessing in God’s name, a charge (or direction and instruction) to guide how we live our faith, or a combination of these.  The benediction ends with a reminder of God’s specific call for our congregation and its members: to encourage one another and build each other up (1 Thessalonians 5:11).  Our worship concludes as the candles are extinguished, to remind us that the Holy Spirit leaves with us to equip and guide us through the week, and with a final song to express our commitment to God.

On Election and Democracy

For months, everyone has been hot under the collar about the Presidential election.  Everyone has an opinion about the candidates, and no one holds these opinions lightly.  My concern is not about which candidate becomes our next President, but about our election process and the effects that it has on our republic.

We aspire to be a nation governed by democratic principles.  Although it’s been more than thirty years since I’ve had a political science class, and I do not claim to be an expert on the subject, I understand democracy to be built upon three principles.  We agree on two, but have lost sight of the third.

1. We agree that every citizen is entitled to vote (with some restrictions, but far fewer than in decades or centuries past).

 

2. We agree on the concept of “majority rule:” the candidate or the proposal that receives the most votes is the winner (again, with some exceptions such as the electoral college or initiatives that require a super-majority).

3. We have forgotten, however, that in a democracy, the rights of the minority are protected.  The democratic principle of majority rule does not imply a tyranny of the majority.  But this seems to be the case in our republic.  For example, consider some of our deepest “red” and “blue” states such as Texas or California.  In the last five election cycles, the winning candidate never got more than 61% of the vote in these states.  That’s a 22 point victory, which anyone would consider to be decisive.  However, it also means that 39% of the voters did not vote for the winner.  After the election, this minority (roughly two of every five citizens) has no voice or influence in their own governance.  Republicans in Texas can ignore Democrats with impunity and still advance their agenda, and Democrats can do the same thing to Republicans in California.   We find this reality not only deep red and blue states such as these, also in “battleground” states where the majority holds the slimmest of leads. But that is all they need to foist their will upon everyone else.

Protecting the rights of the minority in a democracy has more to do with attitude than it does with policies such as super-majorities and the electoral college (which exist for this precise reason).  I’m a Presbyterian, and according to the fundamental governing principles of our church “a majority shall govern,” but we recognize that “men of good characters and principles may differ. And in all these we think it the duty both of private Christians and societies to exercise mutual forbearance toward each other.”  Incidentally, our nation’s founders referred to these Presbyterian principles of government when they drafted our Constitution.  In this case, what’s good for Presbyterians is good for all Americans.  Unfortunately, we see precious little “mutual forbearance” in political discourse these days.  And the negative campaigning that has taken over our elections is the antithesis of the notion that those with whom we differ are nonetheless people of “good characters and principles.”

Whichever way the election turns out, huge numbers of people in our nation will resent and even despise our new President.  If recent history is any indication, he or she will likely work with his or her political party to push through their proposals with no regard for the other party.  And officeholders of the other party will do all they can to obstruct these proposals – even if they agree with them.  For the first time in generations, we even hear talk of rebellion and violence.  This is what happens in a democracy when the silenced minority has no way to participate meaningfully in their own governance.

In the past, I wanted a divided government.  If one party controlled the Presidency and the Senate, for example, I wanted the other party to control the House.  I did not want my state’s governor and senators all to come from the same party.  In these situations, our political leaders would be forced to work with each other and reach an acceptable middle ground.  This protected our nation from the excesses of either political agenda.  My favorite political animals were neither the elephant nor the donkey, but rinos (“Republicans in name only”) and Blue Dogs (Democrats who refused to follow their party’s leadership).  But today, rhinos and blue dogs are nearly extinct in the menagerie of Capitol Hill, and the middle ground where majorities and minorities meet and work together has become a wasteland.

In this election, I care less about who wins than I do about the majority and minority finding a way to govern together.  If they do not, there are no winners.

Baptizing Our Wallets

Once upon a time, a man was getting ready to be baptized in the river as an expression of his devotion to the Lord and his desire for God to have control of his life.  But just as he was about to go under, he shouted, “Wait!”  He took his wallet out of his pocket so he could hold above the water.  The pastor asked, “You don’t want your wallet to get wet?” The man replied, “No.  God can take charge of my life, but not my money!”

More often than we’d like to admit, we’re like this man.  Trusting Jesus is fine, we may think, but we have to be practical.  We have to take care of ourselves.  It takes money to get through life and to face its demands.  When we think this way, it means that we haven’t surrendered ourselves fully to the Lord.  We’re holding something back from him because we don’t fully trust in his providence.  We rely on our bank accounts instead of the Lord. 

In other words, money has become our idol.  We trust it to take care of us, to make us happy, and to fulfill our needs.  We believe that a little more money will solve our problems, but it won’t.  Money only makes us anxious and worried, whether we are millionaires or living paycheck to paycheck.  It makes no sense to devote our lives to something that makes us feel this way, but this is exactly what we do.  When we think that money is more important or reliable than God, it has become an idol.  Like any other idol we may have, we need to bring it to God and put it in submission to him.

We can make God the Lord of our finances when we follow Christ’s example of generous giving.  He turned more than 60 gallons of water into wine at a wedding feast: far more than they needed to keep the party going.  When he fed the 5,000, he didn’t just give them enough food to get through the day.  He provided so much that everyone ate all they wanted, with twelve baskets of food leftover.  Giving generously means more than giving a lot, however.  Generosity is cheerful giving.  You are generous when you give because you enjoy it, not when you give resentfully or out of a sense of duty.  By giving generously, we put the Lord in charge of our money.

Not only does God provide the example for cheerful giving as a way to escape the tyranny of money, but he gives us the ability to do so.  First, we are able to give to others because God has first given to us.  An awareness of the fullness of blessing in our lives opens us share those blessings.  Because the Lord has given so much to us, we’re able to give so much to him and to others.  And second, God’s generous giving arouses gratitude in our spirits.  Through his incredible grace (which is the ultimate generosity), he enables us to let go of what our sinful self wants to clutch to itself.  He changes our hearts so that instead being completely focused on ourselves, we can see beyond ourselves to others, and to God himself.

Generous giving is an act of trust, knowing that as we give, God’s grace will provide and care for us.  May we all trust God enough to get our wallets wet.

On Bible Translations and Their Updates

The 39 books of the Old Testament were written in Hebrew, and the 27 books of the New Testament were written in Greek.  We do not have the original manuscripts of these books and have to rely on copies that were made many years later.  Over the years, Bible researchers continue to find copies that come closer to the originals.  There’s an entire field of study called textual criticism, to analyze these ancient texts to determine what the original manuscript may have said.  Bible scholars also continue to learn more about ancient Hebrew and Greek, in order better to understand what the words mean and how to translate them into our language.  As a result, each generation of Bible translators has more accurate resources than the generations before.

In addition, the English language itself continues to change.  For example, people don’t say “thee” and “thou” anymore, as they commonly did five hundred years ago.  As another example, a 1952 Bible translation of 2 Corinthians 11:25 translates Paul’s words to say “once I was stoned.”  Those words can mean something very different for today’s reader!  A good Bible translation keeps up with changes like these.

Bible translators also have a decision to make: do they want an accurate translation, or a readable one?  Some versions, such as the New American Standard, translate the Hebrew and Greek very accurately, but they are awkward to read.  Others, such as the Contemporary English Version and the Good News Bible, emphasize making the Bible easy to read, but don’t precisely follow the original Hebrew and Greek.  A good translation finds a middle ground between readability and accuracy.  Some examples of these are the New Revised Standard Version, the English Standard Version, and the New International Version.  Other Bible versions, such as the Living Bible and The Message, aren’t translations but paraphrases.  In other words, the writers tell us the meaning of the Bible in their own words.

For more than 25 years, Old Union has used the New International Version (NIV), which came out in 1984.  By using it across the board (in worship, in Sunday School, Bibles given to new members, and so on) and by encouraging members to use the same translation for their personal reading, it is easy for the words to become familiar and to sink into the heart.

In 2011, the NIV was updated to keep up with Biblical scholarship and changes in the English language.  For example, many people now use gender-neutral words.  Fewer people today consider “man” to refer to all humanity, or that “brother” includes both men and women.  About 60% of the Bible verses in the updated translation are exactly the same as the 1984 version, and more than 90% of the words are the same.

Our church leadership is currently working plans to replace our use of the 1984 NIV translation with the 2011 translation.  We have selected the updated NIV instead of the other good available options to make the transition as smooth as possible.

 

You Have Something to Offer

When I meet with people who would like to become members of our church, I emphasize three points that I believe every Christian should know.  I’ve already explained the first two: God loves you, and it is important to spend time every day reading the Bible and in prayer.  The third message for us all to remember is:

You have something to offer.

God knows what he is doing when he brings people together as a church.  Each person has something unique to share that no one else can provide in the same way.  The Lord gives each of us an ability, passion, or resource that is essential for the church to be a healthy, thriving witness of his love and grace.  When we each use the gifts that God has provided, he is glorified, we are drawn closer to him and to each other, and our community and world are blessed.

The Bible refers to the church as “the body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:27).  Our bodies consist of many components, and we need each of them.  If even one miniscule enzyme is out of whack, we suffer and may even die.  Just as we need every part of our bodies to function well, Christ’s body needs every one of us in order to be healthy.

Our bodies do not have spare parts, and they do not have useless parts.  In the same way, when God brought you into our fellowship, he equipped you with something vitally important for us all.  No exceptions.  If you do not use what God has given to you, we will all suffer.

Not all gifts are flashy and noticeable.  We may all recognize the gifts of worship leaders, teachers, and elders, for example.  But someone puts out the garbage each week.  Somebody invited that guest in worship sitting across from you.  Someone tends to the landscaping.  Someone made sure we knew an individual was in the hospital or is in need.  Someone put together this newsletter that you’re reading.  You may never know who these people are, but without them our church be only a shadow of God’s dream for it.

Unfortunately, God’s plans for our church do not always come to reality.

·         We may not know what our gifts are.

·         We may not be willing to use our gifts.

·         The church may not provide an opportunity to use our gifts.

When we do not provide what we have to offer, the church can get by somehow.  But it fails to be the thriving powerhouse that God desires.

When we use what God has given us to offer, something amazing happens.  Normally, when you give something away, you no longer have it.  But in the Lord’s wonderfully crazy way of running the world, when you serve and give, you receive and are blessed with exactly what you need as well.  Yes, there may be times when you are frustrated or weary.  But overall, providing what you have to offer will bring life to your spirit and draw you closer to God.

What do you have to offer?  If you don’t know yet, I encourage you to try out a few possibilities until you discover it.  And when you do, it may surprise you!

Daily Time with God

In the last post I described the first of three points that I emphasize about the Christian life for people preparing to become church members: “God loves us.”  This month, I’d like to describe my second encouragement:

Spend Time Every Day Reading the Bible and in Prayer.

Becoming a Christian is the easiest thing in the world: Jesus Christ took care of that on the cross.  Nothing needs to be added his perfect work in suffering, death, and resurrection to accomplish the goal of a perfect relationship with God.  All we do is receive and accept what he has done for us.  On the other hand, remaining a Christian is one of the hardest things you will ever endeavor.  We face constant pressure, from the passions, willfulness, and pride within us and from the appeal and force of competing claims around us, to revert to a life in which God is at the periphery.  Daily time focused intentionally upon the One who seeks to draw us back to him is the best way for us to respond to and to overcome this pressure.

Jesus once said of the Good Shepherd that “his sheep follow him because they know his voice” (John 10:4).  It takes time and practice for us to recognize and to follow the voice of our Shepherd.  The voice often comes to us faintly, and we struggle to distinguish it from the many other voices that shout at us.  But the more time we spend seeking that voice, the easier it will become for us to identify it through the din that overwhelms our spiritual ears.

If you want to develop a skill or an ability, start where you are and become stronger or more adept with practice over time.  In the same way, your prayer life and your ability to recognize the Spirit’s voice through Scripture develops over time.  If you feel discouraged because great spiritual insights don’t flow upon you, or because you can’t make heads nor tails out of a Bible passage, don’t sweat it.  Even Arnold Schwarzenegger had to start on the light weights before he became a champion body builder.  Daily exercise will strengthen your spiritual muscles.

You don’t have to impress anyone with your daily time with God.  So often we tend to fall into “performance-ism:” doing things so that others can see us doing it, and ensuring that they will admire or appreciate what we’re doing.  When performance-ism strikes our time with God, we focus no longer upon the Lord, but on what we can tell others about our time with God.  Our devotional activities become a game of one-upsmanship, as we try to outdo one another in our descriptions of the blessings we receive from our spiritual disciplines.  Resist the temptation, either to boast about your practices, or to feel inadequate in comparison to someone else’s.  Nobody needs to know how you spend your time with God except for God.  And there’s no need to impress him; he’s already hopelessly in love with you.

How should you spend your time each day with the Lord?  You have many options about what to do, and I can give you suggestions if you like.  But the best way is the way that works for you.

God Loves You

When I help people prepare for the important step in their journey of faith of becoming church members, we cover a lot of material from ways to enhance your study of Scripture to learning how Presbyterian government works. But I emphasize three elements as the essential components of every Christian’s life, and I urge them to make them part of their own. Beginning this month, I’ll reflect on each of them in these messages, and I urge you to consider their place in your life.

First, our relationship with the Lord hinges upon the knowledge that GOD LOVES US. When Karl Barth, one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century, was asked to describe the Christian faith in one sentence, he paused and then sang “Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so.” A simple childhood rhyme can capture this profound truth, but we spend our entire lives trying to wrap our minds and souls around it.

We struggle to accept and understand God’s love for us because it contradicts everything we think we know about relationships. It doesn’t take long for the youngest child to discover that they’re worth depends upon what they do. If you eat your veggies and clean up your room, your parents will praise you. Work hard in school and they put you on the honor roll; work hard at your job and you’ll get a raise or a promotion. Act and dress the way people like and you’ll become popular. If you want to be someone, and if you want people to think you matter, do what it takes to measure up. This message surrounds us so completely that we don’t even realize how much it shapes who we are.

And then God comes into our lives (or we recognize that he’s been there all along), and he says, “I love you.” If it were anyone else, we would ask “Why? What have I done, or what is it about me, that you like so much?” When it comes to God, we can’t accept that his love for us is even possible. We may be able to fool others into thinking that we’re admirable or desirable, but God knows every cranny of our lives. He knows the dark corners of our psyche that we refuse to let even ourselves see. He’s seen the shameful things we’ve done that haunt us for years. If God knows us so well (and he does), then how could he love us? This is God we’re talking about, after all. His standards are so much higher than anyone else’s. How could he look upon us with anything but disappointment and disgust?

And yet, God loves us. Before the world was created, and we were able to do anything to earn or disqualify ourselves from anyone’s love, he loved us. At the most awful, hateful times in our lives, God loves us. After the mountains melt away and the rivers run dry, God loves us.


God’s love for us does not depend upon what we do, or what we don’t do. It doesn’t depend upon who we are, or who we aren’t. God’s love depends only upon his grace: his desire for us and our well-being simply because it is what he chooses to give. It is a choice that he cemented for all eternity and proclaimed through all creation with the unspeakably immense gift of his Son for our behalf.  

Finding Our Community

Last year in January, God hit us between the eyes with a theme verse for our congregation: “Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing” (1 Thessalonans 5:11).  Both in our individual activities as agents of Old Union and in our church activities, we have been seeking ways to honor the spirit God has given us to share with each other and the community around us.  In the process, the Lord has renewed the spirit brought vitality to Old Union in many ways.

It would be easy to stop here.  “Encourage one another and build each other up” could become empty words that we recite mindlessly at the end of each worship service, and God’s intervention in the life of our church could slip into nothing more than a happy memory.  Your session has been seeking ways that we can develop our spirit of encouragement, both within the life of our church fellowship and also in our witness to the community around us.  I invite you to join them in asking the question: how can Old Union offer even more encouragement to our neighbors?  Here are three suggestions and two tips.

SUGGESTIONS:

1. Visit places in our community where you normally never venture.  For example, if you have a washer and dryer, visit the laundromat.  If you don’t have children in your family, spend a morning at the soccer fields.  If you don’t play golf, go to the clubhouse and see what you find.  Our community offers a tremendous variety of gathering spots.  Visit some, and you may be surprised.

2. Take a prayer walk or a prayer drive.  You don’t have to say a word to anyone other than the Lord, if you don’t want to.  Walk or drive slowly through our community’s neighborhoods, and pray for the people you encounter and the homes and businesses you pass.  Remember that prayer is not only us talking to God, but God speaking to us.  Listen for what he tells you about our neighbors.

3. Missioninsite.com is a community research firm designed for churches and other faith groups.  Through the Presbytery, we have free access. Check with me for the username and password.  Poke around and see what the numbers and research reveal about our own little neck of the words.

TIPS

1. Don’t rely on your own ingenuity as you seek ways for Old Union to encourage and build up our neighbors.  Open yourself to the creativity of the Holy Spirit to guide you.

2. Consider the gifts, resources, and character that our church and its members already have, and consider how they can be used to touch our community.  God has equipped us for where he is sending us.  How can we use what we have, and be who we are, in service to our community in God’s name?

Please pass along your ideas of encouragement and up-building to me or to a session member as we seek to be faithful to the One who loves us and calls us.

Duane's Syndrome

I have Duane’s Syndrome.  My doctor discovered it during my annual physical last December and had me consult with a specialist to confirm the diagnosis.  Duane’s Syndrome is an eye disorder that prevents my left eye from moving the whole way over when I look to the left.

But here’s the funny thing: I’ve had Duane’s Syndrome my entire life and never realized it.  No one in my family and none of my friends noticed it.  For 52 years I’ve had something wrong with me and had no clue.  It hasn’t affected how I live my life, except for having to squint a little when doing things like checking my blind spot while driving.  If my physician hadn’t noticed it, I could have gone through my entire life blissfully unaware of this defect.

The Bible tells us that God’s law is like my physician.  We are incredibly gifted at turning a blind eye to our faults.  I wouldn’t know about my Duane’s Syndrome without the doctor, and as Paul wrote, “I would not have known what sin is except through the law” (Romans 7:7).  When we read about God’s desire for our lives in the Bible, we discover the ways in which we have strayed from it.  We recognize our sin, and we come to understand how it damages our lives and ruins our relationship with God. 

God does not reveal our sin to make us feel bad about ourselves.  He wants us to see what is wrong in our lives and in our world so we can do something about it.  But when we try, we discover that we can no more fix our sin than I can make my eye move the way it’s supposed to.  God’s desire is for awareness of our sinfulness to motivate us to seek the grace and wholeness that Jesus Christ offers us through his redeeming death and victorious resurrection.  Through him, we find not only healing and forgiveness for our sin, but we receive the power of God’s Spirit who works in and around us to reshape our lives and our world more into a fuller and richer existence.  My physician couldn’t cure me of Duane’s Syndrome, but the loving work of God in our lives can heal our sin.

It doesn’t happen overnight.  The life of a Christian is an ongoing adventure of growing closer to God and his will, and of finding joy and peace in it all.  There are advances and retreats, growth and dormancy.  But over time, we can see how the power of sin is losing its grip on our lives and how the Spirit of God is filling our spirits.

The adventure is never complete, at least on this side of glory.  The closer you draw to God, the more aware you become of how far away from him you still are. Each injustice that is righted and each temptation that is overcome makes us notice even more the temptations and injustices that remain.  And God lovingly, patiently works with us and in us to bring us closer and closer to the goal of holiness and purity.

What Kind of Disciple Are You?

What kind of a disciple are you?

Put simply, a disciple is a follower and a student.  As Christians, we disciples of Jesus Christ: following as he guides, and learning as he teaches.  Each time we come to him in prayer, study his word, gather with his people, and act in his name, Jesus works in our spirits and our lives to draw us closer to him.

We are being discipled in other ways as well, however.  Jesus is not the only one who seeks to teach us and lead us, to shape how we live our lives and understand the world.  Every waking moment of every day, we receive messages from others who seek to conform us to their values and practices.  Our culture constantly teaches us and leads us.  We are influenced in ways we never even recognize.

As one example, consider advertising.  Corporations and brands try to implant themselves in our brains so the next time we plan to buy a car or hire someone to fix our roof, they are the ones that come to mind.  And it is frightening effective.  For example, see how well you do on this quiz about insurance companies.

• Which insurance company does the cute little lizard represent?
• When Peyton Manning goes through his day humming things like “Chicken parm, you taste so good” which insurance company is he thinking about?
• Fill in the blank: “We are ______, bump, ba dump bump, bump bump bump.”
• When the little girl starts talking to her father in a deep voice, which insurance company is she talking about?
• Who does Flo work for?

If you know the answers to these questions, congratulations!  You are a successful disciple of the American advertising industry.

We constantly receive information and guidance that influences how we think and how we act.  If we are not purposeful about being disciples of Jesus Christ, his message and leadership will become a smaller and smaller part of our lives.  It is not enough occasionally to dabble in Christian stuff occasionally, or to rely upon Sunday School lessons learned long ago.  It is not enough, because none of the other influences in your life have slowed down or decided that you’ve learned it all and don’t need to learn any more.

When you read the Bible daily, pray regularly, and take part in the life of our congregation, you make the choice to have your life shaped by Christ.  You make the choice about whom you will follow, and who will teach you.  You decide that the message and the life that Jesus offers are more important to you than the ones you absorb without even realizing it.

What kind of a disciple are you?

Lent: Spring Cleaning for the Soul

Lent has been around since about the year 200: only a little more than 150 years after the time of Christ.  It was originally a time of preparation for those planning to be baptized on Easter.  The preparation included study and spiritual reflection.  It continues to serve the same purpose for Christ’s followers today.  It is a season for reflection: how am I doing in my relationship with God? Am I experiencing and living the new life that he offers me?  If not, what repentance should I be doing?  What are the blocks in my way to Christ (or more properly, his way to me) that need to be cleared away?

Traditionally, many households go through “spring cleaning” each year.  The week to week house cleaning is fine, but once a year it’s time to give the house a “deep cleaning.”  Get rid of the 30 years’ worth of National Geographics moldering away in the attic.  Move the couch and get rid of the dust bunnies.  Wash the curtains and clean the windows so the sunlight can get in.  In the same way, disciples of Jesus Christ (otherwise known as Christians) spend the year reading the Bible, praying, and worshiping.  But once a year it’s time to clear out the junk in our souls, chase down the spiritual dust-bunnies, and allow the full light of God’s love to pour into our lives.  This is what the season of Lent is all about.

But let’s be very clear.  Lent is not a time for us to become better people.  We aren’t able to do it.  If we try, we will fail, and feel miserable.  That miserable feeling will drive us farther from the Lord.  Lent is a time to open our lives to God, to become aware of and to present before him everything in our lives that prevents us from enjoying the fullness of his love.  It is a time to invite the Lord to be at work in our lives in a more powerful way, and to welcome the transforming power of his Spirit.

This Lent, I invite you to do a little spiritual housecleaning.  Find the obstacles in your life that prevent you from receiving the joy, hope, love, and peace that God desires so deeply for you.  I offer you the following checklist of dust bunnies, grease stains, and accumulated trash for you to give to the Lord, so that he can do a new thing in you.  For each item, consider the particulars of your personal spiritual struggles, and find encouragement from Scripture.  I then encourage you to employ the classic spiritual disciplines of study, prayer, fasting, and alms-giving to open the front door of your spiritual house so the Lord can enter with his cleaning crew.

SPIRITUAL HOUSECLEANING FOR LENT

What things in my life are preventing me from enjoying the fullness of God’s love?

1.    A temptation that continues to ensnare me

“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)

2.    A memory or baggage from the past that hinders me

“Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

3.    Concerns or hopes for the future that blind me from seeing God’s way for me

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

4.    Anger about a situation or a person

“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:31-32)

5.    Hurt or sadness about a situation I am dealing with

“The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.” (Isaiah 25:8)

6.    Worry and anxiety

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?(Matthew 6:27)

7.    A loss or deficiency

“He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

8.    An unwillingness to seek God’s regular presence and guidance in my life

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” (Revelation 3:20)

9.    A focus for my life that eclipses my devotion to God

“You shall have no other gods before me.  You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.” (Exodus 20:3-4)

10. Pride or selfishness that prevents me from noticing the needs and desires of others

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (Philippians 2:3-4)

Come, Make Mediocre Music

Come make mediocre music with us at Old Union Church.

Over the past few years, many churches have begun “contemporary” worship, which typically features a praise band providing music at the beginning of the service.  Often, the band members are excellent musicians singing songs that are more complex than the “four verses and a refrain” that you’ll find in traditional hymns.  The quality of their music is exceptional, even if the style isn’t your cup of tea, and at times the production can be quite elaborate.  One of our neighboring congregations even uses a fog machine during the time of singing praise music.  You’d swear you were at a concert.

There’s just one problem.  Worship is not a spectator sport.  When the music leaders are offering professional-quality songs, you’ll want to be quiet and enjoy their music.  And if songs go beyond the what you’re able to sing, you’ll just stand and follow along with the words.  Church then becomes a place where you come to watch other people worship God, rather than praising him yourself.

You don’t have to attend a church with contemporary music to confront this issue.  Even when we sing the old familiar hymns, you may be tempted not to join in.  “I shouldn’t sing,” you may say to yourself.  “I don’t have as good of a voice as Sally or Stan.  I’d be embarrassed if anyone heard me sing.  All I’d do is ruin this hymn for everyone else.”  So you may open your hymnal and read along, or stand and listen while others do the singing.  When my father was growing up, his aunt told him that he didn’t have a good voice and that he shouldn’t sing in church.  No one should ever give this message to anyone seeking to worship God!

At Old Union Church, we are committed to being a place for each of us to share in worship together.  Our goal is to have music that every person in the sanctuary can use to sing their praise to God.  Worship is about participation, not observation.  We’ve just installed projection screens in the sanctuary not to change how we worship God, but to make it easier for everyone to engage more fully in the service.  Our gifted musicians don’t give a concert each week; they lead as we join our voices together in praise.

We have music in worship in order to lift up our voices to the only Audience who matters, our Lord and Savior.  He thinks that your off-key, half-a-beat-behind singing is more beautiful than any angel chorus.  After all, Jesus didn’t lay down his life for the sake of any angels.  He did it for you and me.  God is the one who gave you that tin ear and trembling voice, and he wants you to use it, and everything else that makes you who you are, to express your love and devotion to him.

If you want to hear concert-quality music, sung only by trained musicians, worship somewhere else.  But if you want to be one of the saints who offers your all to the One who gives you life and makes it worth living, join us at Old Union Church.

Being "Spiritual"

There’s something cool about being “spiritual.”  A growing number of people in the US refer to themselves as “spiritual but not religious.”  Typically, they mean by this that they don’t want to be part of any organized or institutional religion, but that they have a sense that there’s more out there that we usually recognize.
 
The fact is, we are all spiritual, whether we realize it or not.  It’s part of what makes us human, like having 23 pairs of chromosomes.  The human being is more than flesh and blood, muscle and bone.  We are an inseparable blend of the physical and the spiritual.  We share a physical nature with the animals, and we share a spiritual nature with the angels.  But only in human beings do the two natures come together in such a wonderful way.  To call yourself “spiritual” is about as remarkable as saying that you have red blood or that it hurts when you step on a nail.  It is valuable to be aware of this, but that awareness does not make you more spiritual than anyone else.
 
We have a special admiration for “spiritual” people, whose prayers seem to be so special, who spend time every day studying the Scriptures, or who have some sort of a glow about them that leads you to believe that they’re in touch with God more than the rest of us.  That’s not what it means to be spiritual, either.  Being “spiritual” has nothing to do with how eloquently you can pray, or how much you can feel the presence of God around you.
 
To be spiritual – or to put it more accurately, to live out your spiritual nature – is to allow your awareness of the spiritual dimension of life and your familiarity with the things of the Holy Spirit to shape your life.  Being spiritual isn’t about thinking spiritual thoughts.  It’s about living spiritually: having your words and deeds flow from the workings of the Holy Spirit within your spirit.  Or as Paul wrote to the Romans, it is about “living in accordance with the Holy Spirit,” and having our “minds set on what the Spirit desires” (Romans 8:5).
 
Being spiritual means acting in a way, and treating others in a way, that reflects the change in your life that comes from the Spirit of Jesus Christ within you.  As Galatians 5:22-23 puts it, it is a life that bears the spiritual fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
 
If you want to be spiritual, it’s important to recognize the spiritual dimension of who you are.  The disciplines of prayer, Scripture reading, and church attendance will help you become more attuned to how the Holy Spirit is at work.  But you don’t become “spiritual” until all of this changes how you live.  After all, as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).