Pastor’s Corner – July 2008

I want to start with two citations.  The first is from William H. Willimon, the Methodist bishop in Alabama.  He says, “John Wesley said that there is no such thing as a solitary Christian.  The faith must be shared in order to be kept.  Christianity is a social religion.  It becomes dwarfed and blighted when alone, it thrives in numbers.  But true to our rugged individualistic self-centeredness, we have tried to practice the Christian faith as if it were a home correspondence course in self-improvement.  The great heresy in American popular religion is the notion that religion is a private affair, a secret contract between the believer and God.”

The second comes from Eugene H. Peterson’s translation of the Bible called The Message.  This is Psalm 8.

“God, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name.  Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you; toddlers shout the songs that drown out enemy talk and silence atheist babble.  I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous, your handmade sky-jewelry, Moon and stars mounted in their settings.  Then I look at my micro-self and wonder why take a second look our way?  Yet we’ve so narrowly missed being gods, bright with Eden’s dawn light.  You put us in charge of your handcrafted world, repeated to us your Genesis-charge, made us lords of the sheep and cattle, even animals out in the wild, birds flying and fish swimming, whales singing in the ocean deeps.  God, brilliant Lord, your name echoes around the world.”

Several things have struck me this week, a discussion on “Speaking of Faith” involving physics and faith and theodicy (why do bad things happen if God is good and just) and news stories about floods and other disasters and the beating death of an infant, and the global impact of gas prices and food shortages.  As a Christian, how do we respond?  What does it all mean?  Where is God?

Putting these concerns in the light of the two passages at the beginning of this printed journey, I think I see a possible answer.  As people of faith, we do not stand alone.  Our faith, as Willimon said, is at its best when we come together.  June’s  “Disciple World” had a news brief about a church in need of repair and the Interfaith community that came to their aid;  Muslim, Jews and Christian working together to repair a church. Talk about a Miracle Day!  One church alone could not care for itself, yet the community of faith working together could.

According to the Psalmist, God created you and me to be just slightly less than God.  According to Jesus, we as disciples are called to do things greater than He did.  Maybe the question to ask in the face of cruelty and disaster is not where is God or why God didn’t do something.  Instead, maybe we should ask ourselves, where were those whom God made as just slightly less than God when there was a crisis or a need?  Where were the ones to do greater things than Jesus?

God has given us the gifts, the Spirit and the example of how to overcome the challenges we face.  We cannot stop natural disaster, but we have the strength to respond to lift up those who have fallen.  Our greatest shame and sin in the face of evil and crisis is to sit back and merely wring our hands and ask why someone doesn’t do something.  A wise man said that for evil to succeed all that is required is for a good person to do nothing.

Let us put away our private religion and embrace the community of Christianity and extend hands of hope and fellowship to other faiths that we might begin to truly resemble the One in whose image we were created.

Shalom, Darrell

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Pastor’s Corner – June 2008

In the May 6, 2008 issue of “The Christian Century,” Stephanie Paulsell wrote in the “Faith Matters” column regarding the perceived conflict between academics and practical efforts to educate clergy.  I want to share her last paragraph.  “Learned ministry is not just about the minister, though; it is about all of us.  Our convictions about the formation of ministers have everything to do with our vision of Christian life itself.  The minister who eagerly learns wherever she is, the minister who deems no knowledge irrelevant to her pastoral vocation is, I strongly believe, the minister we most need.  For she reminds us, in living out her vocation, that our faith excludes nothing of what it is to be human, that there is no dimension of our lives that is irrelevant to our life with God.” (p. 57)

Stephanie A. Paulsell teaches at Harvard Divinity School and is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

What has this to do with our congregation?  As we publish each week in the worship folder the participants in the service including “Ministers—All the people of the church,” we are all called to ministry and therefore all are called to seek greater knowledge.  I want to offer some resources for deepening our knowledge and exposure to discussions of faith.

The first resource I want to recommend is a book and a radio program, both are called “Speaking of Faith.”  Krista Tippett is the host of this NPR program.  During the hour-long show she interviews a vast array of people from all areas of life and discusses faith aspects from the point of view of her guests careers or experiences.  The program is locally broadcast on Sunday morning and evening.  It can also be found on-line at speakingoffaith.org.  From this web site you can listen to the program or down load it to a portable device (MP-3 or I-pod) or to your computer to listen to at your convenience.   Her book by the same title talks about how she came to do this program and presents some of the broad areas discussed during her interviews.  I have the book in my office and it is available to anyone to read.  It is paperback and can be purchased at most bookstores.

One of the most profound lessons from her program is the variety.  Her guests come from all religions, from professional clergy to scientist, from conservative to mainline, from young and old.  We can all learn from her guests as they speak about faith and why it matters.

Other available resources are three magazines, “The Christian Century,” “Sojourners,” and “Disciple World.”

“The Christian Century” is among the oldest religious magazines still being published.  This biweekly magazine’s slogan is “Thinking Critically, Living Faithfully.”  It reports on the news of the day and the news of Christian churches in the world.  It offers a view of the world that challenges Christians to see how others serve God and dares us to do likewise.  You can check it out on-line at christiancentury.org.

“Sojourners” is published monthly and focuses on faith, politics and culture.  Its founder, Jim Wallis, is an advocate for the poor and hungry in the world and the magazine reflects these priorities.  The May issue’s theme was “Putting Your Money Where Your Heart Is.”  They also have a web site, sojo.net.  Sojourners comes from evangelical roots, and challenges us to live the life of loving others as we have been loved.

The last magazine, “Disciples World” is our denominational magazine.  It was created after the ending of “The Disciple.”  It had a shaky start but has started to recover the impact the old “Disciple” had.  Each month the first several articles address the focus theme.  Like good Disciples, it argues both sides of most issues, allowing everyone to reach their own conclusions.  It also offers news and information about our church and what is happening.  You can see some of it at disciplesworld.com.

Back issues of these three magazines are in my office.  Please feel free to stop in and pick them up, scan them, take them home to read, and if they really make a good impact, you may always subscribe.  As with all the books in my office, I will gladly loan them out for the congregation’s benefit.

Shalom, Darrell