Monthly Archives: April 2008

Continuing The Walk

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I am  preaching at Dover UMC (Dover Plains, NY) again this Sunday.  Here are my thoughts for the 3rd Sunday of Easter. This was also Native American Awareness Sunday.

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Every Sunday that I drive up to Dover, I am reminded of a goal that I once set for myself many years ago. Interestingly enough, it came at the same time when I was living in Montgomery, Alabama, and thinking about earning my God and Country award. Unfortunately, my family moved from Alabama to Colorado and, while I was able to complete the goal of earning the God and Country award, I was not able to even begin to work on my goal of walking the Appalachian Trail. So it is that every Sunday, as I drive up Route 22 to Dover Plains and I cross the Trail, I am reminded that walking the trail from Maine to Georgia was something I once wanted to do.

That is not to say that I haven’t walked the trail. Back in 1988, when I drove from Ohio to Jacksonville, Florida, to bowl in the ABC National Tournament I planned my return trip back so that I could drive through Smoky Mountain National Park and pass through Newfound Gap and visit Cades Cove (another long-term goal).

The Appalachian Trail crosses the highway from North Carolina into Tennessee at this gap in the Appalachian Mountains. Since it was early spring and early in the morning, the tourists that normally crowd this passage were not there so I was able to park my car, stroll northward on the trail beyond one bend, turn around and walk back to my car and then stroll southward beyond a bend and then return to my car and resume my trip. So I have walked a part of the trail but I don’t think that is the fulfillment of the goal I set some forty years ago. Perhaps one day, I will have the time and walk the portion of the trail which transverses Dutchess County from Connecticut to the Bear Mountain Bridge.

I do not know how many people have actually walked the entire trail or even just parts of the entire trail; I know that I am not nor will I be the last to think about walking the Appalachian Trail. But I do know of one person whose journey down the trail from New York to North Carolina was more than just a walk through the woods.

Peter Jenkins was a young college graduate in the early 70’s. It was a time that many young people saw the world around them as a world headed towards self-destruction. The America that Peter Jenkins had known growing up and of which he learned in school didn’t seem to be the America that he saw. The opportunity presented itself for him to search for the real America and so he proceeded to walk across America, from Alfred University in New York down to Mobile, Alabama, and then to New Orleans. From New Orleans, he walked across Texas, New Mexico, Colorado on to Oregon and the Pacific Ocean.

Along that walk, he came to experience God in the form of a lower-class working family in North Carolina and he came to know Christ on a turmoil-filled night in Mobile, Alabama. And when National Geographic asked him to write a story about his journey through the eastern United States, it was the story of his encounter with Christ that he fought to keep through the editing process.

We all have at one time or another had such a walk. We may never have gone anywhere; we may have been around the world. But at some time in our lives we have gone searching for God. It is a journey that mankind has been making since we first became aware of the world around us and our own status as human beings.

Many of us have found what we searched for. Others have not yet begun the search. Still, there are many today who are still searching because, like Peter Jenkins, they see a world around them that doesn’t match the world they have been taught in school.

The problem is that, today, there is the distinct likelihood that those who seek Christ will not find him, especially in the churches of today. Too many churches today have forgotten from where they came and why they were formed. While many young people and other searchers of Christ may say the words and know the works of Christ, they do not necessarily know those are His words because they do not see those words and works in the churches of today.

During this Easter season, we are reminded that Christianity began as a journey, of two men telling the story of Jesus to a stranger as they walked together on the road to Emmaus. Christianity began as a way of life, as a reaction to a religion narrowly defined by law, ritual, and an angry God.

It was a way of life, not a set of creeds and doctrines that required total obedience. It found its strength in inclusion, not exclusion. It was the fulfillment and the embodiment of what Jesus taught us to do and the life to which we are called. It was about sharing the life of Christ with others.

In its beginning the early church was relational, not dogmatic. It was about risking one’s life to worship a God whose unconditional love was revealed to people by a man they could not forget. It was a community of believers who cared about each other and their community as a whole; it was a community that showed respect for those outside the community, even when those outside sought to persecute them. It was a community that was characterized by the love that each member had for each other, “see how they love each other” was often said about the members of the early church.

But somewhere during this journey, we stopped walking. We built a building and we decided to stay awhile while the world moved on by. The early Christians defied the culture of the time and tried not to fit in. The church of today seems to be doing everything it can to be a part of society; and if it cannot do that, then it is trying to make society fit into a rigid and inflexible structure characteristic of the church that Jesus sought to change. Today many churches say that you must either fit within their defined culture or they are apt to try something “modern”, especially if they think that it will appeal to people.

And this has changed the nature of Christianity. Many people, if you asked them privately, would tell you that to be a Christian today only requires a little water at birth, a little rice at weddings and a little earth at death. Lost in the transition from a journey to a permanent stay is need for appropriating the faith and becoming aware of its demands. Lost is the demand for learning to die with Christ to the old life of world in order to rise with Christ to the new life in the kingdom of God.

The movement and way of life that Christianity was has somehow turned into a concern for buildings and programs. No longer is a church a community of inclusion but rather one of exclusion. Jesus walked with the outcasts of society; he constantly and consistently violated acceptable rules of societal behavior (by being seen with prostitutes, tax collectors, people with various illnesses and diseases and criticizing the authorities for their behavior). Yet, many churches today would not let the modern day equivalents of those outcasts sit in the pews of their sanctuaries. And while many churches today have food banks and other programs to help the needy, many in those churches probably are appalled that the poor and needy come to the church. And they will not seek to remedy the problem or work to remove the causes of hunger and the lack of medical care. It is as if we still believe that we can work our way into heaven with a minimalist approach. We have changed the Bible from what it was meant to be into something that we want it to be.

We speak time and time again of involving our youth and new members in the activities of the church; yet time and time again, we tell the youth and new members to wait their turn before getting involved. And then we wonder why the young people who grew up in the church leave and never return. And we wonder why many visitors never return.

The church today faces a major crisis. How are we to address the concerns and problems of the world? First, there must be a rather dramatic restatement of the Gospel message. Second, there must be a major realignment of the forms of church life. And third, we must fashion a new Christian style of life. But we must be careful that we respond to the crisis only in terms of Christ.

If we restate the Gospel to answer the questions we have or to solve the problems as we see them, then we will fail. Our response to the world’s agenda cannot be made or dictated by the world’s expectations.

Christianity has two emphases. One is social, the other personal. It is the responsibility of Christians to impart the values of the kingdom of God in society – to relieve the suffering of the poor, to stand up for the oppressed, to be a voice for those who have no voice. But it is also has the responsibility to help bring people into a personal, transforming relationship with Christ so that they can feel the joy and love of God in their lives.

It cannot do either if it is not a part of the community. But it also cannot allow the community to dictate its survival. For to do so would be to forget its faith, but if faith is protected at all costs, then the church cannot be a part of the community. Faith must be presented to the community, not hidden within the walls of the church.

The success of many mega-churches today is that they are really a collection of many small or mini-churches. When you come to a mega-church, they find out what you are interested in and get you in a group with similar interests. And if they can’t find a group for you, they will make a group for you.

The success of these churches is found in the fact that new members and visitors feel accepted and wanted and they find things to do in the church. But creating a group of individuals with the same interests is not the same thing as having a community of individuals who take care of each other and others in the community.

We can modify our worship but we have to be careful that we do not change the message in the process. William Willimon, Dean of the Chapel at Duke University and a major author in Methodism, noted that he preached at a church that tried to make its service seeker sensitive. Such services remove most of the historic Christian metaphors and images. The music, as Dr. Willimon reports, was “me, my and mine.” Seekers are the generation that we need to reach out to in this day and age but if we do it with slick marketing techniques, we will fail. We must constantly remember that what people are seeking is Christ and if we take Christ out of the picture, we cannot find what we are seeking.

Many churches today make heavy use of the various forms of media and various forms of worship services because many of the post 1950 baby boomers and their children are more accustomed to projected visual imagery. We must also be aware that we can use the various forms of technology that are available but we must also be aware that the technology can only present the message; the message cannot be driven by the technology.

It is time to hear the words that Peter spoke to the people in today’s reading from Acts. Those words are not just words spoken to a crowd some two thousand years ago but a reminder that we also need to change our life. Peter said,

“Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away—whomever, in fact, our Master God invites.”

He went on in this vein for a long time, urging them over and over, “Get out while you can; get out of this sick and stupid culture!”

Some might see what Peter is saying, especially in terms of translation that is offered in The Message to withdraw from society and create a community insulated from the outside world. But could it be that Peter is saying that we have transformed our lives and we have quit the journey that we should be walking?

If we live in a world that is insulated from the outside world, we are protected. But the insulation that protects you from the outside world also keeps you from finding out what is going on in that world. We are not commanded to leave this world but to go out into the world.

But the journey that we make when we go out into the world cannot be a continuation of the one we were making. As Peter reminds us in his first letter, when we begin our journey with Christ, we change the direction and nature of our journey.

We do not live in Christendom, where the Christian tradition is assumed to be true and where the most people believe themselves to be Christians. We live in a world that is faced with enormous and powerful changes; changes that we are oft unable to accept or address. We live in a time where the individual has gotten lost in the maze of society and cannot find their way. Too many people see that world and do not want to go out into it.

We must be prepared to move out into the secular world, seeing it not as an enemy but as an ally. Instead of seeing the secular world and its accompanying thinking as an enemy which biblical faith requires us to fight we should see it as an opportunity for us to learn to read the story of the Bible with new eyes of understanding; to take the spectacles of the past which provide for categories of misunderstanding and change them for eyes that see the world around us. This new vision will enable us to understand that the word “truth” in Hebrew means that which is dependable and reliable rather than that which can be rationally placed in any system of thought. God is true because God does what He says He will do. He becomes known as God not because we organize Him into a total system of understanding but because of what He has done and what He will do.

That is the challenge that we as individuals and as the church community face. How do we keep our walk in and with Christ in a world that wants us to walk in the same tried-and-true path as everyone else? If we, as Christians are to have any impact at all on the earth, we must realize that it is the world that is the true addressee of Christ’s concern, the true object and stage of God’s active love, and the place where He is at work. If we are not in the world, then we cannot be the active agents of change in the world. How are we to become active agents of change in this world?

Ben Campbell Johnson, of Columbia Theological Seminary, suggests that we begin by asking people outside church “When has God seemed near to you?” There is nothing judgmental about this approach; it starts with where people are and it takes their experience seriously. This can be quite a challenge for many people. But this is the starting point for the conversation like the one between Jesus and the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

It is a conversation that tells people the Gospel, the Good News. It tells people of the Gospel that justifies so that we don’t need to earn our status before God or vie for position with others. It is the Gospel that gives shape and purpose to life, making us other-directed rather than self-centered. It is the Gospel of peace that can reconcile broken relationships and build communities. It is the Gospel of justice that advocates for the poor and the marginalized. It is a Gospel of good news and how can one keep from sharing the good news?

What are we called to do? We are called to do exactly what the two disciples on the road to Emmaus did. We are called to tell those whom we encounter in our daily lives the changes that Jesus has made in our lives. We are called to show others that Christ is alive. We are called to continue the walk that began that day on the road to Emmaus.

Portions of this sermon were taken from

1) Faith In A Secular Age, Colin Williams, 1966

2) “Small-Church Turnaround” by Shane E. Mize, from Net Results, December 1998.

3) “The Messiah Is Than A Song”, Tompkins Corners United Methodist Church, 8 December 2002

4) “What Should Be the Norm?” Lyle Schaller, Circuit Rider, September/October 2003

5) “It’s Hard to be Seeker-Sensitive When You Work for Jesus”, William H. Willimon, Circuit Rider, September/October 2003

6) “Two Choices”, Tompkins Corners United Methodist Church, 16 November 2003

7) “Signs of Things To Come”, Tompkins Corners United Methodist Church, 14 November 2004

8) Why the Christian Right Is Wrong, Robin Meyers, 2006

Signs Of Things To Come

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This is a sermon that I gave for the 24th Sunday after Pentecost on November 14, 2004 at Tompkins Corners UMC (Putnam Valley, NY).

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This is a story about time. Like the Preacher writing in Ecclesiastes, it is a time of wonder and a time for thought. It is a time to consider and a time to act. It is a time to look forward but not a time to look back. But what will we see when we look forward? What will come from the thought we put into today? What can we expect from our actions of today and tomorrow?

There will come a time, Jesus says, when all the works of mankind are destroyed. And the people wonder how they will know when that time has come. Will it come when wars ravage this world? Will it come amidst great earthquakes or other natural disasters? Are the signs of desolation, poverty, oppression that we see every day the indication that this is that time? Or are their other signs that we have not seen or heard?

That is the problem. All the signs that we see and read and hear are indications of something but many times we do not know what they mean. And Jesus warns us, in today’s Gospel reading and in other times and places, that we will not know the time or place of His Coming. So how is it that others can speak so fervently and with great imagination that this is that time?

We are at a moment in time when everything that we believe, everything we have ever learned is being challenged. We are being told that to be an evangelical Christian is to be a conservative Christian. We are told that the only issues of importance for Christians are abortion and homosexuality.

But what do we do about the poor? What do we do about education or the environment? What do we do when the system that is in place ignores the little children of this country in favor of big business and greedy corporate interests? What do we do when other Christians tell the parents of gays and lesbians that their children’s sexuality is their fault, that they somehow have lived a sinful and wrongful life? How is it that we have allowed Christianity to become so judgmental when our own Savior never judged anyone? (1)

Now, these thoughts, while parallel to some of my own, are not mine. They come from an interview with Tony Campolo, a noted sociology professor and evangelical. He was the man that President Clinton called when he, President Clinton, needed some spiritual support and counseling. It should be noted that Dr. Campolo, in addition to being an evangelical Christian, is also a Baptist minister. He is also a conservative Christian.

But even with those credentials, he feels that the concept of evangelism has been hijacked by the political motives of the religious right. He feels that the Gospel message, of reaching out to the poor, the sick, the homeless, and the oppressed, has somehow been lost in the politics of the times.

What I find interesting are his thoughts on the churches of today. One reason, he feels, for the decline of mainline churches in today’s society is that they have been so concerned with social justice that they have forgotten to place a major emphasis on bringing people into a close, personal relationship with God through Christ. The Pentecostal and evangelical churches, the churches growing today, are doing so because they attract people who are hungry to know God. These individuals are not interested in knowing God from a theological standpoint, as a moral teacher, or as an advocate for social justice. They want God to be a part of their lives, to strengthen them, to transform them and enable them to better deal with the problems they have, both socially and personally.

Mainline churches have done little in these matters. They believe it, they articulate it but it’s not where their emphasis is. It is why they are dying churches and why the Pentecostal or evangelical churches are growing.

Christianity has two emphases. One is social, the other personal. It is the responsibility of Christians to impart the values of the kingdom of God in society – to relieve the suffering of the poor, to stand up for the oppressed, to be a voice for those who have no voice. But it is also the responsibility to help bring people into a personal, transforming relationship with Christ so that they can feel the joy and love of God in their lives. In today’s society, we see that fundamentalism emphasizes the latter while mainline churches emphasize the former. If we are not careful, we are going to find out that those who ignore the social ministry of the church are going to drive away those who seek God but they will have no place to go because the places that speak to the social ministry will have closed.

Another article that I read this last week was about the turn around of a small church. In this article Shane Mize writes about the efforts of his church to turn around its decline and keep from closing its doors.

In 1995, his church had nineteen active members. During the first year, the membership did a number of things to change what visitors saw. Some of the things, like changing the name of the sanctuary to “worship center” and creating a songbook with praise choruses, I disagree with. Others, like explaining what doxology means, make some sense when you realize that many of the people seeking a church home are basically unchurched and do not understand the Latin phrases that dominate the worship service. Some of the changes would not apply to a church like Tompkins Corners, simply because we do not need a sign telling people where the sanctuary is (though it sometimes seems that we ought to have a sign pointing out where the bathroom is). There was one change they made in the church that we definitely need to consider though; they refurbished their nursery. Those seeking a church home are likely to have children and probably will not consider visiting, let alone join a church if it does not have a nursery.

The success of the program can be seen in the fact that they had twenty-five visitors in the second year of their program and eighty-five visitors in the third year. Eleven of the visitors joined in the church in the second year and twenty-five joined in the third year. But, the one thing that stood out as central to the success and growth of this church was the fact that the church made a visible and concerted effort to build an atmosphere of prayer, faith, and community.

He does mention money and he does mention that there were problems. Money was a problem because it was a small church. But it was never a problem, because the people knew that it was a necessity for success. What they did not anticipate and what caused the greatest problem was that with the growth of the church, in membership, came change. Not everyone there at the beginning was open to the concept of change. Pastor Mize wrote that the church leaders had to deal with a lot of things solely empowered by their faith and that it was faith that empowered the changes and success that came.

He concluded his article with words probably inspired by Paul’s words today. A church that stops reaching starts dying. Faith, prayer, and love create an environment that produces disciples who live to fulfill the Great Commission. Paul was writing about those who had stopped working because they expected the Second Coming of Christ to be during their time. (2)

Though there are others today who would use what Paul wrote some two thousand years ago in a different context, Paul he was simply telling the people in Thessalonika who expected the Second Coming of Christ at that moment in time that they cannot quit working. Just because Christ is coming is no excuse to keep ready; rather, it is a sign to work harder.

Isaiah speaks of signs, signs that speak of Christ’s coming. We know that Isaiah is speaking of Christ’s coming birth, for which we start preparation in two weeks. As we begin our preparation for Advent, as we begin our preparation for the coming of Christ, we need to think about how we can continue working for Christ. How can we show people that this is a place of the living God? How can we show people that this is a place of faith, hope, and community?

We have begun this task by asking some of our members to reaffirm their membership, simply by saying “Yes, I want to remain a member of Tompkins Corners United Methodist Church.” Now, today, I will put the challenge to you individually and collectively, what will you do to match those who are simply asked to respond in writing? The service next week will be an opportunity for you to come forward and reaffirm your membership vows. There will be no pressure put on you to do so; as we sing the invitational hymn next week, if the spirit moves you to do so, then you can come up and will we reaffirm your vows.

That will be one sign that the times of this church are changing. There are others. As we close today, we are reminded of the one constant sign that tells there is hope. We come to this communion table celebrating in the Risen Christ, our Lord and Savior. The bread and juice that we partake are signs that we are a forgiven people and a reassurance that Christ lives in each of us. As we leave this building today, it is that presence of Christ in each of us that give a sign to others that Christ does live.

(1) From an interview with Tony Campolo posted on Beliefnet.com on 12 November 2004

(2) “Small-Church Turnaround” by Shane E. Mize, from Net Results, December 1998.

Two Choices

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This was a sermon that I  gave for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost on November  16, 2003, at Tompkins Corners UMC (Putnam Valley, NY).

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When I began thinking about this sermon I was worried about two things. The first was last Thursday’s Church Conference; the other is the upcoming General Conference of the United Methodist Church in Pittsburgh this spring.

Every four years, the General Conference meets. This is the meeting at which decisions are literally “carved in stone.” For it is from the General Conference that the contents of The Book of Discipline, the rulebook and guidelines for the operation of the church, are decided. Sometimes the decisions made are not the best (such as the decision several years ago to remove the title “Local Lay Pastor” from the lexicon of the church; this decision has come to hurt many small churches and why my particular title is “Pastoral Assistant to the District Superintendent.”) Many times, no decisions are made and the rules that govern the church remain essentially the same as first written down by John Wesley in his “Articles of Religion”.

Like any document, it is the meaning of what John Wesley wrote at the beginning of this church that will be the focus of the upcoming General Conference. Like the other denominations in this country, there have been discussions and dissension among the members as to the exact meaning of what John Wesley wrote. And when compared to the General Conference held in Cleveland in 2000, which many think was contentious and divisive in its own right, this coming General Conference may very well destroy the unity of the United Methodist Church. I hope that I am wrong in my thought about this but I am not alone in this thought; there are others nationally who feel the same.

It is the nature of the church in the coming years that I am most worried about. I must admit that my fears about Pittsburgh are small in comparison to what I feared might have been the result of last Thursday’s Church Conference.

I do not pick the readings that we constitute the lectionary but it is somewhat apropos that our Gospel reading for today is the particular passage from Mark. For Mark writes “Many will come in my name, claiming ‘I am he,” and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of war, do not be alarmed. Such things must come happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginnings of the birth pangs.(1)  It may be that what others and I fear to be the rumors of war are nothing but the birth pangs. And what we fear is the death of the United Methodist Church is actual its rebirth and revitalization. It remains to be seen what the outcome will be.

Still, I left last Thursday meeting feeling that this church has a better understanding of the problems it faces and an even better understanding that it must come up with a solution for solving those problems. It may be a struggle but if we focus on being a United Methodist Church and what that means, especially in a time when people are seeking for answers in a troubling world, it will be a victorious struggle. And I think that is the clue. We must remain faithful to what Methodism was, is and will be in the future. The question is a matter of how to accomplish this.

Lyle Schaller, a noted consultant on the issue of church development, tells us that the number of churches with average worship attendance (not membership) less than 100 actually increased during the period 1972 to 2001. This contrary to the plans and expectations that such churches would close.

During the same period the number of congregations reporting an average attendance between 100 and 199 decreased. And the number of congregations with average worship attendance over 200 remained essentially constant during the same period. (2)

That information raises several questions. First, what will be perceived as a normal sized United Methodist Congregation in 21st century? Since 1970, the median size for average worship has dropped from 67 to 55 with 72 percent of all congregations averaging less that 100 or fewer. This is contrast in the national trend which show that a disproportionately large number of churchgoers born after 1960 worship in large churches.

Second, how large must a congregation be in order to attract, afford, challenge, and retain a full-time and fully credentialed pastor? In the 1930’s a church with an average worship attendance of 45 or more was able to have a full-time, fully credentialed pastor. In the 1950s it took an average attendance of between 75 and 80. Today, the number is between 125 and 135. Fewer than one in four United Methodist churches exceed 125 in their average worship attendance.

Third, does the sermon have to be delivered by a live preacher in the room? It appears that the traditional worship service with the pastor preaching live before the congregation is fast disappearing. Many congregations have opted for other methods of presentation, including but not limited to obtaining videotapes of other pastors. This in part is due to the fact that many of the post 1950 baby boomers and their children are more accustomed to projected visual imagery. There is also an increasing affirmation that the laity should be responsible for many of the tasks long given to the pastor and clergy: worship leader, administrator, and visionary leader.

This has lead to the thought that smaller individual churches are to be replaced by big “mega-churches” with many small satellite churches obtaining many of their resources from the big church.

Now, I happen to believe in small churches. The largest church, in terms of membership, that I was ever a member of was St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Memphis, TN. It had 900 members and a rather healthy worship attendance on Sunday. Though a relatively large church, it was still small enough that you could speak to the senior pastor without difficulty and he knew who you were. The Sunday before I joined St. Luke’s they were looking for me because I had expressed an interested in joining. They were interested in me as much as I was interested in them.

But small churches or even moderately sized churches are no longer the norm or the model. And before you begin to think of Tompkins Corners United Methodist Church as a small church, consider that we have 90 members. That makes one of the medium sized churches in this country. But those type churches are not the models one sees for church building and church growth.

It is churches like Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, KS as their models. These churches are what are popularly known as “mega-churches”. Willow Creek is, I believe, the largest church in the country. In the case of the Church of the Resurrection, they have five services in their sanctuary on a weekend and the average attendance for the five combined services is over 11,000. Personally, I do not see how one can achieve any kind of meaningful relationship with Christ in a setting so large. But it is churches like these to whom every one looks as example successful models of church development.

This leads to the final question: Will the United Methodist Church affirm this new norm? Mr. Schaller does not give a direct answer to this question but indicates that the combination of modern technology and the affirmation of the ministry of the laity have changed the nature of American Protestantism. Combined with the decreasing number of new clergy every year, the future of the smaller church is in doubt.

Churches such as the Church of the Resurrection and Willow Creek make heavy use of the various forms of media and various forms worship services. In the case of the Church of the Resurrection, they have a coffee shop service on Sunday morning that has to be very informal. I don’t know if they have very formal services at which they hold communion. They use the Internet. In visiting their website the other day, I could have watched the previous week’s sermon. Willow Creek gives or rents the videotapes of their senior pastor’s sermons to other churches that might not be able to afford a full time pastor.

But I wonder how in such a large setting one comes to find Christ. The answer you see is that within the scope of the mega-church are many small or mini-churches. When you come to a church like that, they find out what you are interested in and get you in a group with similar interests. As one pastor noted, if they couldn’t find a group for you, they would make a group for you.

The reasons that many come to these churches are that they are in fact responsive to the needs of the congregation. They feel accepted and wanted and they find things to do in the church. It is the reason that many of the old-line denomination churches have failed. They are like the priests described in the reading from Hebrews for today, “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.” (3)

The sacrifices made by the priests of Jesus day could not accomplish what they were supposed to, so they could not remove sin. And since they could not remove sin they had to be repeated. But being repeated did not do any good. It was only the sacrifice of Jesus that could accomplish what sacrifices was supposed to do.

That is why so much emphasis is placed on things like new forms of worship or more modern music. If churches cling to the same forms of service, they quickly become worn out. I use a particular order of service because I am comfortable with it, as I am sure that many of you are but I try to vary things as much as possible. And I would use other forms of worship if the resources were available.

Many churches are experimenting with less formal church worship. These are informal services, held not in a sanctuary or even in a church but in less formal settings. Again, I am not against this idea. The first services I ever put together were held under pine trees on the east slope of the Rockies. I cannot think anything less formal that being on the Front Range on an autumn Sunday. You have even heard me express the idea of having a service out on the lawn of the church, though I think it would be a good idea if we waited until spring before doing anything like that.

Many of the so-called “experts” will say that you need newer music or a more varied instrumentation to bring in the generation commonly called the seekers. And I am not against the concept. What I am against is the imposition of a thought without concerning what is involved. I have found that much of what is considered Christian music today does not give me the same feeling that I get from traditional music. Maybe others find hope and salvation in the music; I cannot. The music that we sing must life us up, not simply make us feel good. The hymns that John and Charles Wesley wrote gave hope and joy to the poor and socially disadvantaged. The same hope and joy must be in the modern songs as well and I am not sure that it is there. Besides not all the songs we sing are that old. And besides, any song played poorly will do nothing to inspire people. If I am wrong, I will change my mind.

And finally I look at the services that are offered in these more modern churches. When I put together the services for my Boy Scout troop in Colorado, I had a cross. The cross was and still remains the centerpiece of worship, at least for me. It is the cross that reminds us that Christ’s sacrifice had meaning. It is the cross that holds meaning for all that we say and do. But in these new, seeker-sensitive services, there is no cross, there is no reminder that the Gospel is more than words.

William Willimon, Dean of the Chapel at Duke University and a major author in Methodism, noted that he preached at a church that tried to make its service seeker sensitive. Such services remove most of the historic Christian metaphors and images. The music, as Dr. Willimon report, was “me, my and mine.”(4) Seekers are the generation that we need to reach out to in this day and age but if we do it with slick marketing techniques, we will fail. We must constantly remember that what people are seeking is Christ and if we take Christ out of the picture, we cannot find what we are seeking.

Churches today are like the wives of Elkanah, Peninnah and Hannah. Peninnah had many sons and daughters while Hannah was barren. Peninnah took every opportunity to remind Hannah that she, Peninnah, was a success as a wife while Hannah was not. We hear in today’s Old Testament reading that Peninnah’s constant taunting was driving Hannah to depression. But through it all, Hannah held steadfast to her faith in God.

Because of her steadfast and constant faith, God rewarded her with a child, a child we came to know as Samuel. We are reminded constantly that it by our faith that we will be rewarded. If we feel that we must be like others who have bigger congregations in order to survive, if we feel that we must somehow water down the Gospel message, then we will simply repeat many of the mistakes made throughout history.

The Gospel message cannot be pared down to something that fits on a bumper sticker. The Gospel is meant to transform us, not protect us. Unfortunately, this is not the message of many of these big churches. With the cross, without the reason, the message presented is sugar coated and self-serving. People come to these services because they are not required to do much more than that.

The Gospel message is to be shared, not hoarded, and we must work to find ways to share it. We definitely need to reach out, both to our “lost” members and to the newcomers to the community. We must find ways to work with those whom we have worked with in the past rather than in competition with them. And today we have a chance to begin those efforts.

We have a potentially new organist but for her ministry to be a part of ours, I think we need to change the time of worship. If we move our worship service back at least 15 minutes and perhaps 30 minutes, this will give the candidate a chance to get here without rushing or without short changing the church for which she currently plays. And if we move the start of our worship service back, this gives us a chance to have a Sunday school program that does not interfere with the worship service.

We have a number of youth that would and should be confirmed and I will be glad to do that. For me to do so requires a change in the time for Sunday school. The opportunities are present; the decision to do so must be made.

The decisions that we make, the choices that we make are based on why we are here today. You are here because you know from your own experience that great things can happen, that you can find what you are seeking, the comfort and solace found through the Holy Spirit. You found the Holy Spirit in a church like Tompkins Corners and you want to make sure others do.

But if you don’t, and it has to be you individually and with the other members of this church, then it may not get done. I will do my part but there is only so much that I can do.

When I teach, one of the tasks that must be addressed at the beginning of the course is the grading system. I tell my students that I prefer the pass-fail approach since it is a better system than the one under which I felt I was getting my doctorate. I always said that the grading scheme for my doctorate was life or death. If I got my doctorate I had life; if I did not get my doctorate, my family would kill me.

As the congregation of this church, you have the same two churches. How shall this congregation work to bring the Holy Spirit to the people of Putnam Valley? In doing so, the church and its members will find life; in failing to do so, the church and its members will find death. The challenge before the congregation is to find ways to make the right choice.

(1) Mark 13: 5 – 8

(2) “What Should Be the Norm?”, Lyle Schaller, Circuit Rider, September/October 2003.

(3) Hebrews 10: 11

(4) “It’s Hard to be Seeker-Sensitive When You Work for Jesus”, William H. Willimon, Circuit Rider, September/October 2003

The Messiah Is More Than A Song

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This is the message I presented for the 2nd Sunday in Advent (December 8, 2002) at Tompkins Corners UMC.  The Scriptures were Isaiah 40: 1 – 11, 2 Peter 3: 8 – 15, and Mark 1: 1 – 8.

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If you are like me, one of the first exposures to the words of the Old Testament and Gospel for today came from hearing and participating in a performance of George Frederic Handel’s “Messiah”. Note that the title of the piece has no “the” in it, it is simply “Messiah”. In fact, the first solo I ever did was the tenor solo announcing the voice crying out in the wilderness preparing the way for the Lord. And some of my students at that time commented that I seemed a little bit on the scared side when I sang. They said my face looked a little paler than usual.

There are a number of misconceptions about the piece. First, it is more than just a Christmas piece, though that is when it is most often sung. Its first performance was not at Christmas but on Easter in 1742. And it is more than the “Hallelujah Chorus”. My own surprise came when I discovered that this chorus comes not at the end of the performance but rather in the middle and serves as the transition from the birth of Christ to Passion Week.

It is an oratorio in three sections, dealing with the birth, passion, and triumph of Jesus Christ. Through its majesty, beauty, and greatness, you gain a sense of the emotion and vitality that Jesus must have been then and still is today. One can only imagine what Handel was thinking as he put the words from the scripture that announced the birth of Christ and put down the notes that would carry the message of the Scripture out to the public.

And I think that is how we should hear the words, as Handel perhaps intended them to be heard, announcing the birth of Christ, telling us to prepare for His coming and his ministry, culminating with His resurrection.

Even today we need to be reminded that Jesus came for us, individually and together. Consider the following:

It is a primary truth of Christianity that God reaches us directly. No person is insulated. As ocean floods the inlets, as sunlight environs the plant, so God enfolds and enwreathes the finite spirit. There is this difference, however, inlet and plant are penetrated whether they will or not. Sea and sunshine crowd themselves in a tergo. Not so with God. He can be received only through appreciation and conscious appropriation. He comes only through doors that are purposely opened for him. A person may live as near God as the bubble is to the ocean and yet not find him. He may be “closer than breathing, nearer than hands or feet,” and still be missed. Historical Christianity is dry and formal when it lacks the immediate and inward response to our Great Companion; but our spirits are trained to know him, to appreciate him, by the mediation of historical revelation. A person’s spiritual life is always dwarfed when cut apart from history. Mysticism is empty unless it is enriched by outward and historical revelation. The supreme education of the soul comes through an intimate acquaintance with Jesus Christ of history. (1)

We must then begin to prepare to meet Jesus, if not for the first time, then once again. That is what Advent is about; our preparation for the coming of Christ. It is a preparation that is individual in nature.

It is a preparation that cannot be delayed. Whether we hear the words of Peter in his letter today or the words of John the Baptist, it is clear that we must prepare for the coming of the Lord; that our encounter with the Lord will be ours and ours alone. It is a preparation that must begin now, for time is of no matter to God. His clock is not one we can read or even begin to comprehend; as Peter wrote, time is not important to God so it cannot be important to us. If we must prepare, we must do it now.

It is also important that we realize that John’s voice crying out in the wilderness was not preparing a way for the Lord to come to us but rather for us to come to the Lord. John’s message of repentance was also one of change; if one was to be baptized by the water, washed clean, then one must be willing to change. This is something many people have forgotten today. Too many people today want Christ as their Savior but they want Him on their terms; a deal that cannot be made.

And many evangelists preach a message that fits into that concept of God fitting into your plans rather than the other way around. John’s call was to repent, to change one’s self in order to be ready for God. If we are to gain because of Christ, we cannot keep our old ways.

For as we prepare ourselves, so too are we able to help others. To Isaiah, God said, “comfort my people.” The end of the Babylonian exile was near and the people of Israel would soon be going back to Jerusalem. The call to prepare the way was a call to remove all obstacles that would hamper that coming. In one sense, it means to prepare one’s heart in order to accept the Holy Spirit. It also means that we must help others. Now we can never get someone to accept the Holy Spirit; I continue to believe that is an individual event. But I also believe that we, individually and as a church, can and must do everything possible to help others come to that moment. We must comfort those in need; we must prepare the way so that when the time comes, the path is clear for individuals to come to Christ.

The other day I came across a powerful idea, one that I think fits the small church of today. There are many models for the growth of churches in America today but I don’t believe that they work well with small churches, such as Tompkins Corners or Walker Valley. But there are ways that we can grow and there are ways that we can reach out.

One way is to pay attention to what visitors to this or any church experience on Sunday morning. Will they experience warm hospitality? Will they get a palpable sense of the presence of God? Christopher Schwartz has stated that this is the single most powerful evangelistic outreach possible and through it church growth is possible without the presence or plan of an evangelism program. He concluded his discussion about church growth by noting that all growing congregations have eight traits in common:

  1. Leaders who empower others to do ministry;
  2. Ministry tasks distributed according to the gifts of the members;
  3. A passionate spirituality marked by prayer and putting faith into practice;
  4. Organizational structures that promote ministry;
  5. Inspiring worship services;
  6. Small groups in which the loving and healing power of fellowship is experienced;
  7. Need-oriented evangelism that meets the needs of the people the church is trying to reach;
  8. And loving relationships among the members of the church.

Schwartz maintains that if all eight of these characteristics are present, congregations will grow naturally and organically, without the need for an evangelist program.

This can be quite a challenge for many people. Some people think that the task of sharing the Gospel is harder than it actually is. It would seem that, as the humorist Dave Barry once wrote, the people who are the most interested in telling you about their religion don’t want to hear about yours.

Ben Campbell Johnson, of Columbia Theological Seminary, suggests that you ask people outside church “When has God seemed near to you?” There is nothing judgmental about this approach; it starts with where people are and it takes their experience seriously.

If you cannot or will not share your faith with others, it may be that you are in the midst of a crisis of your own. Often times, people use aggressive tactics because they themselves are insecure about their own faith and are anxious for others to believe and behave in the manner that they do so as to make their own faith more plausible.

The question then, is whether one believes in the efficacy of the Gospel — the Gospel that justifies so that we don’t need to earn our status before God or vie for position with others. It is the Gospel that gives shape and purpose to life, making us other-directed rather than self-centered. It is the Gospel of peace that can reconcile broken relationships and build communities. It is the Gospel of justice that advocates for the poor and the marginalized. It is a Gospel of good news and how can one keep from sharing the good news?

This can be a time of great joy and peace, but it is often a time of despair and darkness. As we prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord, we are also challenged to make it easier for others to come to Christ. That preparation begins at the table set before us today. Christ invites us without regard to who or what we are. He says to each one of us that this bread was broken for each one of us and that blood that was shed was shed for us. We hear the words of Isaiah speaking of comfort and know that Christ died so that we may be comforted. We hear the words of John the Baptist, crying out in the wilderness, telling us to prepare the way and we know that Christ died so that the way would be prepared. As we complete this, the second Sunday in Advent, we continue preparing for the coming of Christ. And we are invited, no, commanded to help in whatever way we can, through our own talents and gifts, to provided comfort to those who are in pain and to help prepare the way so that others may come to the Lord.

And just as Handel wrote the chorus to celebrate the birth of Christ, so too should we proclaim the presence of Christ in our lives.

(1) From The Double Search by Rufus M. Jones

A Child’s Book Report on the entire Bible…

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This was sent to my wife, who sent it to me.  I could clog everyone’s bandwidth by sending it to you but it is easier to post it here.

Enjoy and share by sending everyone a link to this site (I could use the traffic).  🙂

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A child was told to write a book report on the entire Bible. This is amazing.  I wonder how often we take it for granted that children understand what we are teaching???

Through the eyes of a child. Children’s Bible in a Nutshell

In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God, darkness, and some gas. The Bible says, ‘The Lord thy God is one, but I think He must be a lot older than that. Anyway, God said, ‘Give me a light!’ and someone did. Then God made the world.

He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked, but they weren’t embarrassed because mirrors hadn’t been invented yet. Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they were driven from the Garden of Eden. Not sure what they were driven in though, because they didn’t have cars.

Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother as long as he was Abel. Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except for Methuselah, who lived to be like a million or something.

One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good guy, but one of his kids was kind of a Ham. Noah built a large boat and put his family and some animals on it. He asked some other people to join him, but they said they would have to take a rain check.

After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more famous than his brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his birthmark in exchange for some pot roast. Jacob had a son named Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat.

Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston.

Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh’s people. These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable. God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti.

Then he gave them His Top Ten Commandments. These include don’t lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or covet your neighbor’s stuff. Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: Humor thy father and thy mother.

One of Moses’ best helpers was Joshua who was the first Bible guy to use spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol and the fence fell over on the town.

After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a giant with a slingshot. He had a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and 500 porcupines. My teacher says he was wise, but that doesn’t sound very wise to me.

After Solomon there were a bunch of major league prophets. One of these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale and then barfed upon the shore. There were also some minor league prophets, but I guess we don’t have to worry about them.

After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of the New Testament. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been born in a barn, too, because my mom is always saying to me, ‘Close the door! Were you born in a barn?’ It would be nice to say yes .During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and the Democrats. Jesus also had twelve opossums. The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him.

Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans on the Mount. But the Democrats and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn’t stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands instead.

Any way’s, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution..

On This Day

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On this day, April 4th, 1968, the world changed.  Some would have us say that the world is a better place; others will say that it is not.  For a while in my life, I thought the promise of the world was going to be fulfilled.  But this singular day in my life along with other events that were soon to transpire have made me wonder if we ever understood what the promise was to be.

There are questions that we as a society even understand or even care that the promise was once made but has become unfulfilled.  We are fast becoming a society where money, wealth, and power are more important than equality and justice.  We are fast becoming a society divided by race, economic status, and education.  And it would seem that those who have are even more concerned that those who do not have should be denied even the opportunity.

On April 4th, 1968, a man was killed for a cause little known in America.  A man was killed because he choose to speak out against not only racial inequality but against economic inequality.  Had he lived, he probably would have also spoken out against gender inequality.  We may remember what he said and we will remark how glorious and elegant his rhetoric has resounded through the ages but we don’t seem to hear the words nor do we respond to the call of action.

Some will say that we have responded.  But have we?

Have the reasons that Martin Luther King, Jr., came to Memphis been resolved?  Oh, yes, the strike of the sanitation workers was settled but there is a growing gap between the wages and salaries of those at the top of the economic mountain and those at its foot.  There is still hunger in America and our ability to feed the hungry is getting overwhelmed by those who need assistance.  The medical profession has become the medical business;  the priority is on medical economics (i.e., the “bottom line”), healing and caring are secondary considerations.

Let us do more than remember what happened forty years ago today or what was said forty years ago last night.  Let us do more than stand on the mountaintop and declare what a great view of the promised land we see.  Let us remember that it was their fears that kept the Israelites out of the Promised Land, It was their fears that kept them out for forty years.  Forty years have passed since we last saw our promised land; it is time for us to enter.  Last us move forward and take this country into the promised land.  This will require more than words; it will require action and effort.  Yes, it will be hard; yes, it will be difficult.  But no promise has ever been met that did not require an effort on the part of all parties involved.  It is time that we keep our part of the promise; it is time to enter the promised land of equality and justice.

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My personal thoughts on the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. are posted on “Where Were You on April 4 1968?”.

Do No Harm

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IMPORTANT UPDATE!!!! –

Wal-Mart has announced that it is withdrawing it’s suit against the family that they sued (from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch – link).

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The phrase “do no harm” does not appear to be in the Hippocratic Oath, though it does appear in Hippocrates writings.  Hippocrates wrote that a physician, when treating a patient, must have two objects in mind with regard to a disease, to do good or to do no harm.

There are a number of things we could say about this phrase and its application to the treatment of diseases but we will save that for another time.

Rather, I want to focus on some legal issues and wonder if that phrase should somehow be part of jurisprudence as well as part of medicine.

Consider the following case that was reported in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch today (link):

  1. A woman was critically injured in a car accident eight years ago and suffered a brain injury that disabled her to the point that she was moved to a nursing home.
  2. The woman and her family received approximately $420,000 (after the deduction of assorted legal fees) in a legal settlement with the trucking company whose driver was involved in the car accident.  The money was put into trust for the woman’s care.
  3. Her medical bills, paid through health insurance provided by her employer, totaled approximately $470,000.
  4. Quoting the Post-Dispatch article, “As is common for employer-sponsored health plans, Shank’s insurance required full repayment of medical expenses if she received money from a lawsuit.”
  5. So, the woman’s employer sued the woman “out of fairness to everyone who contributes to the plan”.
  6. The case was appealed and the court ruled that the money must be paid to the company.  Note that the medical bills were greater than the settlement so the woman and her family must also pay some $50,000 out of their own pocket.
  7. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals let the ruling stand and the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, thus affirming the original verdict.

Now, which is more important in this case and in other similar cases, that the law be upheld or the spirit of the law?  Should the principle of doing no harm also be the dictum for lawyers as well as doctors?  The money was awarded to the family for the woman’s care and was to be kept in trust (and thus could not be spent on other things).  Yet the company insists that their needs come before their former employer in order to be fair for all the employees.  I am sure that if you asked the employees that they would say that the money should go to the woman for her care.

Over the past eight years, we have heard the term “values” thrown about quite easily.  This is a case where we need to consider what values truly mean.  Jesus was rebuked by the Pharisees and scribes because He broke the law when He healed the sick on the Sabbath.  But He rightly pointed out that the person was more important than the law.  Is that not the case now?

There are some who say we have lost our moral direction.  I would think that when we put the needs of the company and its interests above the needs of the individual, we have lost our moral direction.

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This is being cross-posted to RedBlueChristian.com