Why Christian?

In my first day of teaching in a new school, a student once asked me “Are you a Christian?"   She had googled my name and found it referenced a few times with various church-related organizations. At that time I answered, “It depends on what YOU think a Christian is. I may be, I may not.”

I don’t know that there is another single word that carries so much baggage in our culture today. And more baggage keeps getting piled on lately. The media and pop culture have taken the lead in defining how Christianity is perceived.

As Professor Hall points out in his book Why Christian?, it is important to distinguish between causes and reasons when answering this question. The “cause” of my Christianity, like Professor Hall’s, is that I was born into a Christian home, a predominantly Christian society, and was raised in a Christian church.

As a teenager I became aware that the Christianity being practiced in my environment was nothing more than a simple moralistic. I saw the disconnect between what people professed and what they did. If that was Christianity, it was pretty shallow. And white, Protestant, middle class, and preferably Scandinavian.

So I stopped going to church. The place was filled with hypocrites anyway. But what I could not stop was the spiritual hunger. I had to feed my spirit and the language of Christianity was all I knew. So I read and took classes, and read some more and actively started cultivating friends who were of different [or had no] faith traditions.

And found that there were many who shared the same frustrations as I had.

When I finally returned to church, it was less about causes than reasons. One reason was that I connected the dots and realized that the people who were simple moralists to my teenage eyes, were actually people struggling on their own journey with some of the same questions I was. Some succeeding and some failing. Just as I was. I could continue to struggle and learn on my own or I could struggle and learn together in a community.

I am a Christian for many reasons, reasons that are probably not foolproof nor are they above debate, but those reasons carry and comfort me, help me make sense of my life and my relationships, and nourish my spirit.  I am flawed and struggling, but my eyes and heart are open. I try to live what I profess.

Now I would answer my student’s question this way – “Yes, I am a Christian and hopefully you will see what a Christian is by what I do.”  Now I can help define what a Christian is to those around me. And I ask God to help me.

Amen.

Paul S.

Lent(en) Life

As I have confessed in earlier posts, I look forward to Lent. I love worship, and appreciate that Lent allows for two different worship experiences every week (the usual Saturday at 5/Sunday at 8:30 and 10:45, and noon/ 6:15 services on Wednesdays). I get giddily excited with Mardi Gras celebrations and the traditional Pancake Tuesday dinner. This year, I am particularly looking forward to the midweek services based on the book Why Christian and on seeing the video creations of our middle and high school youth. I love that by Easter I feel my faith has grown and deepened, and how glorious light and alleluia seem after weeks of darkness and sadness. I love that during Lent it's hard to not feel SOMETHING, even if it's emotions we might usually push aside.

Part of my preparations in the weeks leading to Lent include thoughtful, prayerful consideration of what can I give up or add that will draw me closer to God. This year, all kinds of opportunities struck me as intriguing:

• Creating a cross of seven white candles (one for each week of Lent) and beginning my evening devotions by lighting all of them, then extinguishing one for each week of Lent (an idea from the book Circle of Seasons, available in our church library)
• Journaling daily as a form of prayer (using the book Praying with my Pen as a guide)
• Participating in the open facebook group "Giving it Away for Lent," created by local pastor Meredith McGrath, that challenges us to give away 40 things during the Lenten season and to pray for the people who will receive these items
• Daily cleaning as a form of discipline and reminder of finding God through humble service
• And perhaps even reading some of the books about God that I keep on the bookshelf?? 

And as I start getting carried away in my excitement of all these great things I could do and the joyful and fun things that are to come, I realize I'm missing the whole point. Lent is a lot about living in the moment, and of being completely present in the time--and the pain--that must happen before Easter morning. So really, the specifics of the Lenten disciplines (whatever we may choose) seem less important than the spirit in which we do them and the presence and self-discipline we bring to the season. 

As we journey to the cross together this Lent, I pray for our spiritual journeys. May we have the wisdom to discern what God asks us to do, the fortitude to be fully present and vulnerable to our God throughout the 40 days, and the courage to obey whatever He asks. May it be so. Amen and Amen. 

~Rachel S

Image by Netzhering (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

This Lent, I Will Give Up....

I’ve been thinking lately about what to give up for Lent.  One of my favorite foods or should I say treats is french vanilla ice cream…..or maybe old fashioned home-made chicken soup with lots of dill and challah (egg bread with poppy seeds).  Okay some tastes are harder to give up then others.  What about you?  What have you thought of giving up?  Soda?  Chips?  Chocolate?  Smoking (hmm)?

Still, upon further reflection, maybe these 40 days of Lent really is a good time to do some spring cleaning or de-cluttering in our bodies, our thoughts, maybe our homes….and our spirits.  What to keep?  What to file away?  What to give away?

I'm wondering though, maybe this question of what to give up is more like putting the cart before the horse (makes it hard to get very far).   

When Jesus went into the desert for 40 days, I don’t think he asked, “What do I need to give up?  Chicken soup and homemade bread (very old time favorites)?”  I think it was more like, “God, I want to spend this time alone with you, no distractions, no temptations.  Take away my fears.  Let me just rest in you and do your will.”  This seems more true to me.  From Jesus' conversation, from his prayers desiring to draw closer to God, Jesus knew without a doubt what he had to give up.

Psalm 139 speaks about God forming us in our mother’s womb.  When you think about this, could it be that at least one time (and maybe more) God has seen you and me naked (oops!)?  If this is true, then what is it we really need to give up?  What stops us from looking into the closets of our minds, our hearts, our spirits?  Fear, feeling overwhelmed, guilt, shame?  Well fear not dear heart, there is nothing God hasn’t already seen.

So maybe this year, I’ll give up the french vanilla ice cream and keep the chicken soup with dill (yeah!).  And while I’m at it, during this Lenten 40-day journey I’ll ask God to help me pull out that dusty box of procrastination (letters to write) from my closet.  Confession!

Whatever I do, I know God will be present, and it just feels good growing closer to the One who knows and loves me no matter what.  What about you?

Shalom as you journey through Lent and beyond,

Susan M

Jonah, Yom Kippur, and Lent

St-Takla.org Image: The whale throws Jonah on the beach, by Gustave Dore

I’ve been thinking lately about my dear friend Susan, who passed away two years ago…stories of times shared…conversations, events, rituals. Our commitment to friendship was honored through the joys and the challenges of our lives. 

One of Susan’s annual rituals occurred during the Jewish Holy Day of Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, follows ten days after the New Years or Rosh Hashanah. These 10 days are marked as a time for self-reflection and examination.  In the afternoon, Susan would go to a nearby river to spend time in meditation and prayer, and afterwards she’d toss the reflected-on misgivings she had written down into the water, and then spend time giving thanks.

Yom Kippur is the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar.  All-day Services usually include reading the Book of Jonah, while offering praise for God’s many blessings and asking for God’s mercy.  It was always stressed upon us that having a grateful spirit was/is not dependent on receiving God’s mercy.

The story of the Prophet Jonah is both simple and complex; and perhaps even magnified to emphasize its message, with its narrative format and “mythical style” images.  If you leave the pages of Jonah and move forward to the Gospels, you will also find Jesus teaching the Disciples and gathering crowds in the form of parables and stories. Narration can be a powerful medium. While Jonah was a Minor Prophet, the message given is the only one of the Twelve Prophets told in narrative form.  

The Message?  Heading God’s call in our lives, regardless of our perspective?  Having a grateful spirit? Bearing reverence for God’s gift of grace? Perhaps good thoughts to reflect on during this upcoming season of Lent.

This week as we study Jonah, I am reminded of Yom Kippur, and Susan’s yearly walk to the river.  Long before and after I was baptized, she sometimes talked about feeling closer to God near the water and finding this a very healing place to be.  I too am drawn to river.

It’s been many years now since I was baptized in the waters of God’s grace. I pray that I remain mindful of how I reflect on my own misgivings and God’s call in my life?  Wherever I am, God help me to rest in your righteousness and mercy, for myself and for all, giving thanks for the blessings of life. Amen.

Shalom,

Susan M.

Running from God

My spiritual director wisely told me that when things happen in series of three, it might be worth paying attention: God may be trying to get my attention. This week seems to be the week of being reminded that, as much as we may try to run, God is still far bigger and more loving than we can ever dream of understanding.

On Sunday, I had the joy of leading the children's sermon on Jonah. We acted out the story of Jonah (running in place, "swallowing Jonah", etc.), and talked a lot about what it means to run away from God. As one wise child pointed out "Running from God is kind of impossible. He's bigger and even faster than super sonic sound! And he just wants to wrap you in a big hug anyway." 

Yesterday, a friend sent me the song linked above because she had found it moving--repeating the comforting theme that God is indeed holding us. And today, while cleaning out my DVDs, I found the classic VeggieTales movie which includes the song "God is bigger than the boogeyman/ He is bigger than Godzilla/Or the monsters on TV/God is bigger than the boogeyman/And He's watching out for you and me."

This week, I would encourage you to examine how you might be running from God, and challenge you to delight in His presence, knowing that you are loved and that--try as you might--you can't escape that love or your identity as a beloved child of God. 

With prayers that you may hear His voice and sense His peace,

~Rachel 

People Are Kissing Calves! Or Sleeping Around with Other Gods

Okay, the first picture is a clever pictorial joke. The second is of an actual prayer service where a group of people met around the Wall Street Bull statue to pray that the recent bear market would turn to a bull market. Maybe the first one is not so much a joke…

The writer of the book of Hosea uses the unfaithful wife/whore as an allegory for Israel’s unfaithfulness to God.  It is also used to show the steadfastness of God’s love for his people – Hosea is commanded again and again to return to his unfaithful wife as God returns again and again to his people.

Chief among the gods with whom the people of Israel strayed was Ba’al[master]. The popular image is of a golden calf [didn’t we see this with Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Elijah?] though the reality of what Ba’al worship was can only be inferred.  Hosea says “You have ploughed wickedness, you have reaped injustice, you have eaten of the fruit of lies. “

The ‘other gods’ of Hosea’s time were perhaps easier to identify. People of that time created statues or images for the largely illiterate masses. So what other “masters” do we have? What do we sacrifice to? On what altars do we place the fruits of our labors?

Hosea points out a few:

“The idols made of gold and silver”.

“The trader in whose hands are false balances” [placing profits above people].

“You have loved the prostitute’s pay on all the threshing floors” [compromising your values for money/continued paycheck].

“You have surrounded me with lies” [twisting the meaning of Christ’s teaching to suit a personal/political agenda].

Licentiousness.

Attaching some modern names, we have: Fame, fortune, power, ideology, temporal political entities, and of course – ourselves. None of these are “bad” in and of themselves – it is just when we become obsessed with them, placing our focus on them and filtering our actions of what is right or wrong based on them.

I certainly have been guilty of serving other masters, other false gods.  I have burnt considerable offerings/ fruits of my labor/time seeking many of the above.  As I suspect we all have from time to time.

I am comforted by Hosea’s image of the God-Who-Always-Comes-Back. The God who desires only steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God and not burnt offerings. We need only return to our God, and hold fast to love and justice.

Lord, help me when I stray from you. Help me to see when I am straying so that I will return more quickly.

Amen. Amein. Ameen.

Paul S.

Hosea, Tefillin, and Lent

                                 Gottlieb:Jews praying in the Synogogue during Yom Kippur

Coming from a Jewish background, I am smiling at our studying Hosea and Jonah as we prepare for the season of Lent.  For many, Lent is a time of self-examination and spiritual reflection, leading up to the Holy Week of Easter. The journey through Holy Week is often colored, personally and collectively, with reminders of God’s abiding love for us and enduring gift of grace and mercy.

In the Jewish calendar, the Holiest 10 days of the year occur during the first Eastern calendar month, which corresponds with September and/or October. These 10 days are bound by Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and by Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Yom Kippur, the most solemn day of the year, from sunset to sunset, is a time for Jewish people to spend in prayer seeking God’s forgiveness and mercy.

During the Sabbath between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kipper, the words of Hosea 2:21-22 are read while “donning Tefillin” in preparation for prayer. Tefillin are very small black boxes worn on the forhead or forarm, and contain scrolls from the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible), proclaiming one’s allegiance to God. 

“I will espouse you forever. I will espouse you with righteousness and justice, and with goodness and mercy. And I will espouse you with faithfulness. Then you shall be devoted to the Lord.”   

These Godly words are taken from the Jewish Study Bible. The reverence for life and for devotion to God, expressed during these Holy Days, is something to behold. Yet I was often intrigued that this Holy ritual seeking God’s forgiveness occurs within a specific time period. 

Reflecting upon Hosea, in preparation for Lent, how do we revere the enduring gift of God’s love for ALL God's children.….so you and I can come before God any day, any time of the year in self-examination and ask for God’s mercy? May I forever remember that because God’s mercy is a gift freely given; while I no longer need to concentrate my petition for forgiveness into one timeframe; bearing a Reverence for God’s love and forgiveness is so very worthy of my gratitude and prayer.

God, I pray my gratitude and reverence for your love and mercy is reflected in my daily life. And when I fall short, as I so do, help me to trust your grace will carry me through.

Shalom,

Susan Moss


ps....More about Jonah and Lent in a future blog...come on back!

Adultery and raisin cakes, Challenges and grace

“The LORD said to me again, ‘Go, love a woman who has a lover and is an adulteress, just as the LORD loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other Gods and love raisin cakes.” Hosea 3:1

I taught Hosea 3:1 to my confirmation small group last year, hoping to instill in them that the Bible has all kinds of interesting verses—and to encourage them to explore their Bibles*. This verse also invites us to read deeply, and not just accept things on surface value; i.e., God is not saying that eating raisins and prostitution are equivalent. A little research tells us that people who love raisin cakes tell fortunes, or worship other Gods.

God asks a lot from Hosea in this verse. Specifically, Hosea is asked to:

1) Approach someone who may or may not be interested in him and his ideas

2) Love and trust someone deeply who appears to not be trustworthy and who has clearly gone astray (Forgiving the person seems to be implicit here too)

3) Love as God loves Israel

These seem to be themes that come up again throughout our Holy Scriptures. Jesus’ message was far from universally well received (John 7:40-44, among others). With respect to trusting strangers, the disciples were ordered to go to towns to preach the Good News, not carrying money, and trusting that people would welcome them in (Luke 10). The last command may be the most difficult of the three, and again one that’s repeated throughout the Bible: love sacrificially and love our neighbors as ourselves.

Yet despite the challenge before us in obeying these commandments, there is a hint of grace in this verse: God repeated his requests to Hosea, rather than losing patience for his failure to comply. Our God is patient, and as we see more clearly in other verses, loving beyond measure.

As Christians, we are asked to perform seemingly impossible tasks, including the ones in Hosea 3:1. As you live these daunting commands this week, I encourage you to remember that the God who ordered them is, to paraphrase Hosea 11, a God that cannot give us up, a God who lifts us lovingly like infants to His cheek, and the Holy One in our midst.

Holy God, help us to remember your commandments and have the courage to live this love in Your name, trusting you are among us. Amen.

~Rachel

* Confession: I also taught them this verse because the juxtaposition between raisin cakes and prostitution still makes me smile, even though I understand what it means. Sincere thanks to the parents who tolerated their youth reciting this verse for weeks, and to Pastor Melinda, who probably heard it more than anyone else. 

Photo By Abhinav619 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The Wrath of God

Many a television preacher has made headlines by proclaiming that some disaster is the result of God becoming angry for some action someone took somewhere that the preacher has determined will arouse a large indignant response. The cynical among us might posit that those outrageous statements were made calculated on how much money they would bring in. The hubris of people saying they know God’s reasons for anything is an entirely different type of disaster.

Amos proclaims the Wrath of God loudly and in detail. And it is not an isolated city or group of people he points his boney finger at. It is every single country, every single people – including Israel, the “chosen ones”.

His repeated phrase is “Seek the Lord and live” and then he goes on to identify how Israel has not in Chapter 5.

“You that turn justice to wormwood and bring righteousness to the ground…Because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain…you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy at the gate."

And for these transgressions, the Lord rejects their offerings and takes them into exile.

This past week I noticed a FB posting from a colleague who questioned why he should help the poor [pay taxes] when they ‘decided not to acquire an employable skill’ and ‘had 4 kids they couldn’t afford’ and ‘ they don’t wish to work or abuse the help they are getting’. And he insists he is a Christian.

Has humankind changed at all since the time of Amos? Where are the Amoses of today?  How do I “hate evil and love good, and establish justice at the gate” and respond to someone who says things like this?  Am I being asked to be Amos to this person?

Let the words of my mouth [and my fingers] and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord.

Amen

Paul S.