When Did We See You?

When I tell people that I’ve been to Ghana, they often ask about the poverty that we see there.  After all, Africa is famous for being poor.  And yes, there is poverty in Ghana.  But there is also affluence.  Becky and I saw cars, homes, and clothes in Ghana that we could never hope to afford.  The prices in some of the stores we visited were way out of our range.  What struck us even more than the poverty was the contrast: well-heeled businessmen driving sleek black SUVs past people living in shacks by the ditch, and children with nothing but a ball of tape for a soccer ball playing outside a beautiful resort.  We asked ourselves, “How can such stark contrast exist in Ghana?  How can the affluent live with themselves when confronted with such desperate need?”  It baffled and bothered us.

As we talked about it, we realized that the gap between the rich and the poor is just as real in the US as it is in Ghana.  According to a 2011 study by Duke University and the Harvard Business School, the richest 20% of Americans own 84% of our nation’s wealth, while the poorest 40% own only 0.3%.  And the gap is growing: over the past 20 years, poor Americans have actually gotten poorer, while the rich have gotten richer.  Even more troubling is the study’s finding that most Americans have no idea how big the difference is between the wealthy and the poor in our country.

Becky and I saw the contrast between the rich and the poor in Ghana, while rarely noticing in the US, for two reasons.  First, we do a better job of hiding the poor from sight in our country.  The rich and middle class live in certain areas, and the poor live somewhere else.  If you don’t go to  certain neighborhoods and communities, you don’t have to see them.  And second, we’ve trained ourselves not to see them.  We’ve learned how to ignore the needy until we don’t even notice that they exist.  At the monthly deacons meeting, we struggle to identify people that we can help.  They’re in our community, but we don’t see them.  Becky and I noticed the contrast in Ghana only because we were in a different culture, where we didn’t know how to ignore what we didn’t want to see.

Politicians may engage in or accuse each other of “class warfare,” but for us Christians this is a wake-up call to do something.  In the parable of the sheep and goats (Matthew 25:31-46), Jesus cursed the goats because they failed to help him when he was hungry, thirsty, a stranger in need of clothes, sick and in prison.  Perplexed, they responded, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?”  They did not help, because they did not see the need.  They were blind to the poor and distressed people all around them.  I’m ashamed to say that those goats sound an awful lot like me.

Thankfully, we worship a Lord who gives sight to the blind and wisdom to the foolish.  I urge you to seek the Lord’s help to open your eyes to the need that surrounds us, so that you may respond with the love and justice of Christ.

The Gospel According to Shark Tank and Moneyball

The other evening I saw part of the TV show “Shark Tank” for the first time.  Apparently, it’s a chance for inventors to pitch their products to potential investors.  As I watched, a man who wanted to sell recyclable sneakers made a pitch to investors to put $50,000 into his concept.  The first four potential investors turned him down for one simple reason: “You aren’t asking for enough money.”  As they explained to him, the $50,000 would only be enough to process a first order, leaving him with no capital for inventory and production costs to go any further.  Ironically, they refused to give him any money because he should have asked for more money.  I’m no expert on recyclable footwear and business strategies, but I was struck by the way his limited vision for his product and his company hurt him.  He failed to comprehend the magnitude of the opportunity in front of him.  By trying to be prudent and start small, he lost the opportunity entirely.

Then a couple days later, we watched the movie “Moneyball,” a baseball movie starring Brad Pitt.  In one scene, the stars watch a video clip of a baseball player whose goal when he’s at the plate is simply to get to first base.  He never tries to turn his hits into a double.  Then, on a rare occasion, he hits a long ball and decides to round the corner to get to second base.  But when he does, he trips and falls.  Frantically, he literally crawled across the dirt to get back to first base.  The opposing players double over in laughter: not because of how foolish he looked trying to get back on base, but because he had hit a home run and didn’t even know it.  Sheepishly, the batter picked himself up off the dirt and rounded the bases, to the applause and laughter of everyone in the stadium.  He had a home run, but could only think about getting to first base.

I wonder: how often is this is case for us when we come before God?  Do we think too small, by imposing limitations upon what we think God is willing to do for us?  Do we set our sights too low by being willing to settle for $50,000 or first base, when God’s plans for us are so much more?  In the process of not wanting to impose on our Lord, or going beyond what we think is reasonable, we discount our expectations.  When we do, we risk losing out on the riches of God’s grace because we haven’t asked for enough.

Let me be clear.  When I am speaking about asking from God, I’m not referring to the wealth and health and fame that purveyors of the “prosperity gospel” offer.  Focusing upon such worldly, self-centered interests blinds us to the true riches that God offers, and in fact has already supplied us through the powerful work of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps we do not ask for enough because we don’t want to impose upon God.  But is that even possible?  Remember, this is the Lord of all creation, with limitless, over-abounding glory.  The only way we could impose upon him is if granting our request would somehow diminish his own glory.  And that is impossible for God to do, for two reasons.  First, think of infinity as the mathematical metaphor for the glory of God.  Infinity minus fifty thousand is still infinity.  Infinity minus fifty bazillion is still infinity.  No matter how much God grants to us, it is no imposition upon him, because he continues to have inexhaustible glory, power, wisdom, and honor.

Perhaps we limit our requests to God for what we think is reasonable.  But do you really want God to treat you reasonably?  By reasonable standards, the only treatment any of us would deserve from God would be condemnation and annihilation because of the sinfulness and brokenness that is inherent to our human condition.  Reasonably, we cannot even ask God to grant us our next breath, our next heartbeat, our next thought.  The indescribable glory for us is that God does not treat us with reason; he treats us with grace.  He delights to overwhelm us beyond our wildest dreams.  Why?  The only explanation is simply that he wants to.  It has nothing to do with deserving it, earning it, or reasonably expecting it.  God takes pleasure in being lovingly unreasonable with us.  When we enter the adventure of faith, we abandon standard concepts of what is logical and reasonable.  We cast ourselves into the amazing, overwhelming plan of God that outstrips even our wildest dreams, that goes far beyond what we could ever imagine would be possible.

The greatest irony of all is that God has already given us more than enough.  The baseball player already had a home run, but couldn’t even see it.  We are like him when we fail to recognize the more-than-enough that God has already given us.  Christ has already hit one out of the park for us, and has already bestowed upon us an indescribable bounty of joy, peace, hope, and love.  The Christian journey is not one of receiving more and more blessing from God.  It is the journey of running the bases to discover more and more of the blessing that Christ delivered to us through his redeeming death and victorious resurrection.  The consummation of the ages is merely the time when humanity, and all creation, finally catches up with the superabundance of the cross.

So go ahead: ask for the audacious from the Lord.  You can do it because he has already provided it for you.

Gay Marriage?

We’ve done a funny thing with marriage, and that’s a major reason for our nation’s hot debate about gay marriage. The traditional, typical way that weddings are conducted in our nation is a direct violation of the First Amendment’s freedom of religion. For all of the talk about prayer in public schools and nativity scenes at courthouses, we all seem to forget that members of the clergy act as representatives of the state when we officiate at weddings. I am an agent of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania when I declare two people to be husband and wife. I have this authority, not because of any civil qualifications or appointment, but simply because the Presbyterian Church (USA) has enrolled me as a minister of word and sacrament.

 This system of having church officials invested with civil authority is what our nation’s forebears left Europe to escape. Our freedom of religion is a bulwark against people being baptized into the official state church, whether they’re believers or not. People of other Christian persuasions or other religions (particularly Judaism) were persecuted, imprisoned, and killed. That’s why the First Amendment declares, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” But here we are: clergy in charge of establishing legally binding relationships that we call marriage. Meanwhile, back in Europe, where religious freedom used to be so rare and precious, the religious and legal aspects of marriage are now nicely separated. For example, in my family’s homeland of the Netherlands, marriages are always and only conducted in the town hall, under the authority of a local civil official. If you’re a Christian, you do what my parents did: have a procession from the town hall to the church, where you seek God’s blessing upon your union and dedicate yourselves to him.

 Many Christians (including me) do not think it is proper for churches to bless a same-sex couple’s union as a marriage. This is a religious view of marriage, not the legal or civil aspect that should be the topic of votes, court rulings, and Presidential comments. Let churches, not politicians, judges, and voters, debate the issue of whether or not God considers same-sex partners in the same that he views male-female couples.

 Many citizens (including me) think that sexual orientation should not be a factor that limits or denies human rights, and that same-sex couples should have the same rights and privileges as heterosexual couples. In other words, I and others do not have the right to impose our religious convictions upon our fellow citizens. 

This brings us to the unfortunate issue of language: marriage vs. “civil union.” Understandably, many LGBT (i.e. lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender) citizens aren’t satisfied with civil unions because they seem to be second-rate in comparison to marriages. And, also understandably, many Christian, Jewish, and Muslim citizens don’t want same-sex couples to be “married,” because it cuts against their religious values.

 I suggest that do away with the term “marriage” altogether, as a civil or legal designation. Any couple that seeks to have a legally binding relationship can do so, and we can call that relationship anything we want. Those who desire to commit this relationship to God and to seek his blessing upon it are free to do so, of course. But that celebration and service is a religious ceremony that has no legal authority.

 Not only would this help our nation avoid the religiously-inspired aspects of the gay marriage debate, but it would also help churches reclaim their convictions about marriage. Like many other ministers, I’m often asked to conduct a wedding for a couple that doesn’t care that much about faith. Getting married in the church, by a minister, is the thing to do. I urge them during premarital meetings to dedicate their relationship to the Lord, and they’ll nod their heads and agree. But that’s about it; after the rings are on the fingers and the wedding cake has been eaten, they won’t be in the church again for years. If I am no longer an agent of the state, then people will only want a marriage ceremony at the church if they really want the Lord to be the third partner of their union.

Faithful and Relevant

The challenge for the church, today as always, is to be both faithful to Jesus Christ and relevant to the world. At times we lose our focus on Jesus Christ and allow other forces and interests to dominate our life. But at other times, we become so enamored with approaches, strategies, and programs which worked well in the past that we fail to recognize that they are no longer relevant.

A powerful visual metaphor for this second error is the Choluteca Bridge in Honduras. It is a modern, well-constructed bridge that effectively linked communities on opposite sides of the river. It was such a good bridge that it was one of the few in the nation to survive the horrific floods when Hurricane Mitch hit in November 1998. There’s just one problem: the river shifted its path during the flood and no longer flows under the bridge. So there it is: a well-designed, excellent structure that has become irrelevant. It no longer serves a purpose, with no road on either end of it and no river underneath it.

In the same way, the church always runs the risk of doing a great job that is no longer necessary because the currents of society have shifted underneath us. As PC(USA) World Mission director Hunter Farrell put it, we risk being “uniquely situated to do what no one’s asking us to do.”

This seems to be the case for Old Union Church. We live in a world and a community that has changed from what it was a generation, or even a decade, ago. We may be exemplary in our faithfulness to Christ and his gospel as we do so. But if we do wonderful things that no one cares about, we are irrelevant. Our faithfulness does no good for us, for others, or our Lord.

In order to be both faithful and relevant, we must work on two tasks at the same time.
FIRST: what does it mean for us to be faithful? What is our calling as a congregation? In the past several years, we’ve gone through two discernment processes to answer that question. The first was a time of strategic planning before undertaking the building project, in order to determine the purpose for our church. The result is the statement of purpose that graces our church letterhead and the banner in our lobby:
Our purpose, together, is to
a. praise the Lord,
b. grow in faith,
c. spread God’s word through the community, and
d. reach out to those in need.
The second took place during 2010, when the session sought to identify our church’s “core value:” the factors that define our congregation, that make us who we are, and that define our church’s reason for existing.
A: SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH: Old Union is a place for prayer, learning, worship, growing in faith, and making personal commitments to God.
B: OUTREACH: Old Union exists to provide care and support, both within and beyond the congregation. We value service, sharing faith, and engaging in mission.
C: RELATIONSHIPS: Old Union has a sense of family and embodies the values of a small country church. It is a place of welcome, compassion, caring, support, and forgiveness.
We believe that the statement of purpose and the core values are what God calls us to do, and whom he calls us to be. We are faithful to him when we act according to these principles.

SECOND: how can we be relevant? Do we live out our purpose and express our core values in a way that makes sense and makes a difference for the people in our church and in our community? To answer this question, we must be students of our culture and community. We cannot afford to turn our noses up to trends and innovations we don’t like, simply because they are strange and unfamiliar. If we do, then eventually we become strange and unfamiliar to those around us. The challenge is that it is natural for us to associate with people like ourselves, and to do things the way we’ve always done it. We don’t even notice that other people are doing things differently from us. So to be relevant, we need to look beyond our own sense of “what’s happening.” One helpful tool that we have is Mission Insite, a rich resource of demographic information about our community (the presbytery has paid for our subscription to this service). Go to missioninsite.com and log in with the username “olduion” and the password “jamesglover” to do some research about our community. I suspect we’ll be very surprised by some of the things we discover. Our community is probably not what we think it is, and our neighbors are probably not whom we think that they are.

Once we are able to determine what it means to be faithful and what it means to be relevant, we can use that as a litmus test for everything that we’re doing, and how we’re doing it. Is it faithful to God’s call for us? Is it relevant to our community? If not, we need to get rid of it. Our church has many beloved programs, practices, traditions, and customs. But we cannot allow them to become idols: to be so important and valuable to us that we resist losing them even if they interfere with God’s call.

Shattering idols is painful. By definition, an idol is something that we value, that is very important to us. It hurts to say goodbye to things we like. And when someone challenges us to get rid of them, we may be tempted to lash out in anger against them. Think, for example, of how people hated and attacked the Old Testament prophets when they called for them to abandon their idols. Being faithful to God’s call means we confront our pain and discomfort.

At the same time, we do not get rid of treasured traditions simply to surf the latest wave of trendiness. Doing so would be to make an idol of something else: the quest to be cutting-edge. Just because it’s new doesn’t mean it’s better. Our question is not “what’s the latest fad to hit churches?” but “what can we do to be faithful to God’s call in our current situation?” The answer may be to continue doing some things that we’ve done for generations. But it may mean doing things differently. Everything is on the table, and must pass muster. In each case, we must ask: is this an effective way to achieve our purpose and to live out our values?

A Leaf in the Stream

During my first year as a pastor, God showed me something that has helped me understand my place in what he’s doing in the world. It’s an image that I keep going back to, and I hope it’s one that you’ll find helpful as well.

I was the pastor of two churches in Armstrong County, and it was one of those weeks that pastors sometimes have. Nothing at the churches seemed to be going right, and people were pointing fingers at each other, and at me. I felt overwhelmed by the task in front of me, and I was frustrated by the difficulties that had cropped up. To clear my head and to seek God’s direction, I went for a walk in the woods. It was the fall, and I eventually ended up beside a little stream. As I stood there, stewing in my juices, my attention was drawn to a leaf floating down the stream: bouncing off the rocks, hurling over a little waterfall, getting caught in an eddy, and eventually floating downstream.

And then it hit me. Or, to word it more accurately, I realized what God was trying to tell me. He is the stream, and I am the leaf. I am caught up in something much larger than myself. Just as the current of the stream carried the leaf along, God’s Spirit carries me along in his plan. The leaf isn’t going to get downstream faster by doing anything on its own. The stream is in control of where it’s going, and God is in control of where I’m going and what I’m doing. The leaf has no idea where it’s going, or why it’s going there. But that doesn’t matter; it doesn’t need to. The stream will take care of things.

I am caught up in something bigger than me. It doesn’t all depend upon me to make things work out. God has a plan that is unfolding and carrying me along. I may not understand it, and I may not see where it is taking me. And that’s OK. I can relax in the stream that is carrying me along, and know that God is in control of it.

This image of being a leaf in the stream of God’s Spirit came to me again about three years ago, when I was devastated by the news that I would have to start work all over again on my PhD dissertation. Once again, I found myself standing beside a creek, watching the leaves float downstream. But this time, some of the leaves had ended up in a patch of still water away from the current of the stream. These leaves, for some reason, had ended up in a backwater that kept them from moving along. And I realized that, for reasons unknown to me, God wanted me to remain in the place where I was for a time before moving on. He wanted me to spend another year earning my degree.

Some people may be tempted to view this image as an excuse to be lazy and passive. Like an inert leaf, we just allow God to do his thing while we sit back and do nothing. But that’s not the message I’ve received. For me, it is a source of peace and hope. When I’m tempted to get anxious about how things are going, and to fret about the things I need to do in order to move things along, the image of a leaf in the stream reminds me of the truth. I am caught up in something bigger than me. God has a plan that is carrying me along. And I can trust him to carry me to his goal.

Cross-Cultural Faith

What did Christ do when he died for us? Your answer to this question may have more to do with the country you live in than you realize.

Freedom is important to us Americans. After all, we’re the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. We celebrate the freedoms that our constitution guarantees. Our nation was born in a struggle for independence, and it grew through pioneers and settlers seeking a free life. Given the choice, we would rather live a difficult life of freedom than an easy life where we have to do what someone else tells us to do. So it’s no surprise that, as American Christians, we would almost instinctively answer the question “What did Christ do?” by replying “He freed us from our sins.” And without a doubt, he did.

I’ve learned from my time in Ghana that unity and belonging is very important to them. In Ghana, your very identity comes from your family, community, and ethnic group. I suspect that the typical Ghanaian would gladly sacrifice freedom in order to maintain strong relationships. One of the hardest things for Ghanaian immigrants in the US is the sense of isolation that they feel here. This value shows up in a common Ghanaian political slogan: “One Ghana!” They are proud of the fact that, in spite of tribal, religious, and political differences, unity matters. I’ve frequently seen Ghanaians strongly debate an issue that they disagreed over. After a while, one or both of them would get uncomfortable with this point of conflict and declare, “But we are brothers and sisters!” Smiles, handshakes, and jokes would then reassure them that, despite their difference of opinion, they are still in relationship with each other. So, unlike us Americans, a Ghanaian is more likely to say, “Because Christ died for me, I belong to him.” The work of Christ has given us a family and a kingdom to belong to.

Christ’s atoning work on the cross means both that he has set us free from sin, and also that we now belong to him. Our freedom in Christ is not an absolute independence that allows us to do anything we want. It means that we now have a Lord who controls our lives and unites us with him and with his family. And the fact that we belong to Christ means that we are no longer bound or enslaved by the evil forces of our world or the sin deep in our hearts.

The point here is not that either Americans or Ghanaians are “right” or “wrong.” The truth of Christ’s amazing work is greater than what any of us can grasp. But when we learn about how others understand our faith, we can enrich our own in the process.

It's Time to Step up

You’d have to live under a rock to be unaware of the budget battles in Washington, DC. One of the results is that our government is reducing its spending on social programs. Maybe you’re upset about these funding cuts, or perhaps you think they haven’t gone far enough. Either way, they’re making a change in our nation. And if you’re a Christian, you have a responsibility to act.

The testimony of Scripture is clear: we’re supposed to care for the those in need in our society. Read, for example, Psalm 82:3, Amos 5:11-13, Luke 18:18-30, and Romans 12:13. The Bible has much more to say about our responsibility to care for the poor and oppressed than it does about some of the issues which dominate many of our discussions.

Maybe you are someone who is disturbed by the government’s funding cuts because you believe that these programs fulfill the Biblical mandate. That’s fine, but there are other ways to be faithful to Scripture. What can you do, now that these programs aren’t doing it?

Or, maybe you’re someone who welcomes these cuts because you don’t think it’s not the government’s role to take care of people. Again, that’s fine. It may not be Washington’s job to help the poor, needy, and oppressed in our society, but Scripture tells us that it’s ours. Are you stepping up to the plate?

Regardless of your politics, the Christian call is clear. There are people in need. As the people of God, it is our responsibility to do something about it. What are you going to do? Here are a few suggestions:
1. Food banks across the nation are losing government funding for their work to feed the hungry. What can you do to assist our local food pantries, or the Pittsburgh Community Food Bank?
2. Volunteer fire departments are receiving smaller grants to support their work in our communities. Have you made a contribution to your local company?
3. FEMA has less money to help victims of natural disasters. The Presbyterian Disaster Assistance program has a proven track record of helping with long-term disaster recovery. Would you like to support them?
4. Public libraries have to make do with less, even though people with low incomes rely on them for so many things. Have you made a donation?
5. LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) has less money this winter to help people stay warm. Many of them will turn to the Lighthouse, our deacons, or other Christian charities for help. Can you give them more to work with?

These are just a few examples, but I hope you get my point. There are many ways that we can each do our part to obey God and help “the least of these” (Matthew 25:31-46) all around us.