Church Growth: An Idea

Many congregations, especially those of mainline Protestantism, lament the shrinking of the church. "What can we do," I often hear, "to make the church grow again?"

Please see these reflections from a blog entitled Euangelion (Gospel/good news).

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. -Tertullian

Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done: The Intersection of Faith and Politics

Tomorrow we will go to the polls and touch a screen, fill in a bubble or pull a lever to cast our vote. Some Christians will vote for Republicans. Some Christians will vote for Democrats. Still other Christians will vote for one of the other parties.

Since it is the month in which we get to vote as citizens of the United States, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about the tricky and wonderful intersection of faith and politics. And I would like to use the second and third petitions of the Lord’s Prayer as a way of entering into this discussion.

Thy Kingdom come… Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. We pray these words each time we take the Lord’s Prayer on our lips and in our hearts and minds. And I am quite concerned that—at least most of the time—we have no idea the depth and power of these words as we pray them.

When we pray these words, we are asking for God’s Kingdom, to come among us here and now. Put more bluntly: the Christian faith is not only about getting a ticket punched so that you can go to heaven when you die; it also has a deep, profound and lasting impact on our lives—right here and right now.

When we pray these words, we are asking for this Kingdom of God, which began on this earth in the smallest of ways, in Jesus of Nazareth and in his band of followers, to grow to epic proportions. The Scriptures use the image of a mustard seed growing into an enormous tree and a tiny batch of leaven that leavens a whole loaf of bread (Luke 13:18-21).

When we pray these words, we are acknowledging that as Christians, we always carry a dual citizenship: We are first citizens of the Kingdom of God and second, citizens of the United States of America. We live in a monarchy (Christ is King!) as well as a Democracy (the USA). We have duties both as citizens of God’s Kingdom and citizens of the United States.

So whether you go to the polls and vote “Republican” or “Democrat” or “Libertarian” or “Green Party,” be sure that before, during and after you vote, you pray with every fiber of your being, Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be Done, on Earth as it is in heaven.

Perhaps the dear Pastor Martin Luther said it best, “The kingdom of God comes indeed without our prayer, of itself. But we pray in this petition that it may come to us also.” (Small Catechism, explanation of the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer)

May the Lord our God, whose Kingdom is indeed coming into this world in Jesus the Messiah, plant that Kingdom firmly in our lives, that we may be his faithful citizens, now and into eternity.

Note: For the main points of this article, I am indebted to N.T. Wright, a noted New Testament scholar, at the lectures he gave at a conference I attended at Duke University in October. You can listen to the full lectures online here.

Christians and Halloween

I had been meaning to post something on the celebration of Halloween from the perspective of a Christian pastor. But then I came upon this post and, well, I couldn't have said it better myself.

McChurch, McPastor, McChristianity

The world of religion generates a huge market for meeting all the needs that didn’t get met in the shopping mall. Pastors are conspicuous in this religious marketplace and are expected to come up with the products that give customer satisfaction.
-Eugene Peterson, Living the Message, HarperCollins, 1996, p. 261

Consumerism is the drug that is lulling the church in North America into a deep and dangerous sleep. We encounter it in our own patterns of “church shopping” for a congregation that is a “better fit.” We see it on billboards, slick brochures and Facebook ads. We begin to be troubled by it when we see portrayals of a Jesus dressed up to look, talk and act, well, just like us.

Or maybe we don’t notice it at all. Perhaps we’re so used to Consumer Christianity, so steeped in it, that we barely notice it at all. Slowly and seductively congregations become “audiences” and worship leaders “performers” and the next thing you know the church has to “sell something” to “attract” new members.

Consumer Christianity is a false Christianity and it is literally killing the church.

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So what shall we as followers of Jesus and members of His Body the Church do? Eugene Peterson concludes his reflections: But then who is there who will say the name of God in such a way that the community can see him for who he is, our towering Lord and Savior, and not the packaged and priced version that meets our consumer needs?

How do we begin to seek God—and God’s will for his church—and not something packaged as “church the way I like it” and “a god who makes me comfortable”?

First, we pray. And we do so with deep and critical questions: Is this of You, Lord, or is this of the evil one? We reclaim Holy-Spirit-soaked prayer as our first language of faith.

Second, we repent. Literally naming our sins is a crucial step in the journey of repentance, which is our whole life’s journey. The confession of those in AA guides us: “Hi, I’m Matt, and I’m a consumer-holic.” We examine our lives deeply and critically. How does my own participation in the consumer culture shape my views of God and Church?

Third, we seek God not according to our own whims and desires, but in the places that God has promised to reveal himself to us: in the Word (preached, studied, read, prayed) and in the Sacraments (taken regularly, seriously, joyfully).

Fourth, in our actions and words, we speak the truth that our true identity is not as consumers, but as Baptized children of God. We are not demographic groups or income cohorts or even “free” shoppers, but are instead priests by Baptism and servants of Jesus.

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May the Lord our God, who cannot be bought or sold, refresh us with the gift of life, that we might be his faithful people and true witnesses in the world.

The Work of Worship

"The work of worship gathers everything in our common lives that has been dispersed by sin and brings it to attention before God; at the same time it gathers everything in God's revelation that has been forgotten in our distracted hurrying and puts it before us so that we can offer it up in praise and obedience. All of this does not take place merely in a single hour of worship. But, faithfully repeated, week after week, year after year, there is an accumulation to wholeness."

This brief reflection is taken from a devotional book I have been using with my morning Scripture readings: Eugene Peterson's Living the Message, p. 240 (August 30).

Laptop Batteries, Summer and Sabbath Rest

I do a dumb thing on a regular basis. My laptop gives me a warning that my battery is low and that I need to plug it in and recharge. But I ignore it. Then it gives me a "critical battery" message. I ignore that. Then, if I don't plug it in, it shuts down on me. It takes forever to reboot. I get annoyed. Rinse. Repeat.

You'd think I would have learned my lesson by now. I also think this is how many of us go through life: wait until the batteries are run down to critical and then recharge. Work, work, work like a dog and then finally take that grand summer vacation. But sometimes it's too late and so even the time off becomes toil and we resent how exhausted we are from vacation.

God offers us something different: a regular time to recharge, a sabbath rest. Better: God gives us a rhythm of life perfectly suited to how we are made as his glorious human creatures, a pattern of work and rest. Six days of work and a day of rest. (I suppose there is something to be said for a regular vacation or two after the pattern of the Jubilee Year, but that is a discussion for another day.) Rest. Recharge. Before the "critical battery alarm" goes off.

Another option, of course, is keeping the laptop plugged in all the time. No hassles with plugs or critical battery warnings. But the computer battery experts say: "Don't do it! You'll ruin your battery life. It won't hold a charge after a while." For me, this is analogous to the soul that seeks an "endless vacation" (I actually found a magazine with this title at a relative's house). Many of us have been there too: working only for the next vacation, the next break. T.G.I.F. Dreading Mondays. But this denies the goodness of work. Yes, work is tainted by sin, but it is first God's good gift to us.

There is even more good news. We believe that our Lord Jesus perfectly fulfills all of God's commandments, including the one about sabbath keeping. He is repeatedly confessed in the Scriptures as Lord of the Sabbath and he has more than a few things to say and do about it. He gets into trouble with the religious leaders for "breaking" the sabbath when in fact he is fulfilling it and deepening our understanding of it. And Jesus fulfills it perfectly and completely by resting on that Holy Saturday, the Sabbath of Sabbaths as the Lord of Creation rests in the tomb.

Because Jesus has fulfilled the Sabbath, we don't have to get bent out of shape or nitpick about the details of Sabbath keeping: Jesus has filled full the Sabbath and he invites us to drink deeply of Him. He is the Living Water. He is our Rest. Come to me, you weary ones, He invites us.

As summer seems to go by more and more quickly each year, what might it mean for us to embrace both the goodness of work and the blessedness of sabbath rest...before the critical battery alarm goes off?

Writing a Better Story with My Life

[Disclaimer: This blog post is part of an entry in a contest to win a chance to attend a workshop by Donald Miller in Portland. But it's probably something I would eventually write about anyway. So there.]

My wife and I often have a conversation about what we would do with several million dollars if we won the lottery. This is always a very theoretical conversation since we don't play the lottery for theological reasons. So perhaps the question should be: What would we do if a box of several million dollars was anonymously dropped at our back door?

My answer has always been that I would open a theological seminary here in NW Ohio. It would have a threefold focus: 1) to allow for post-graduate work for pastors and Bible teachers who want to go deeper in their studies, 2) to allow those considering the ordained ministry to obtain a theological degree as part the process to becoming pastors, and 3) to provide a robust yet accessible series of courses for interested folks of every stripe who want to grow deeper in their Christian faith.

Ideally, there would be a lot more cross-fertilization and conversation between these groups than traditionally happens at a seminary. My other concern is that many seminaries are quickly pricing out many of those who would love to go but cannot afford to. I would want it to be affordable, perhaps even indexing the tuition to income or ability to pay.

For my part, I wouldn't mind doing some of the administrative stuff, but my overall focus would be teaching and getting some world-renowned scholars as visiting professors. Why should the Ivy League schools have a corner on the market for the best and brightest theological minds of our time?

Of course, the real challenge these days for me is: Why should I wait for an anonymous package of several million dollars to arrive before living this story? Don't I believe that God's abundance is far greater than that? Don't I believe that the Holy Spirit is able to move mountains? So I continue to wait, to pray and to begin to live this "better story."

I am hoping that Donald Miller's conference will help me in couple of ways: 1) to help me begin to live a better story and to "live into" the better story that God desires for me and 2) to enliven my preaching and teaching to help those whom I am privileged to serve live better stories with their lives.

Here is a link to the conference web site.

And the video I am supposed to embed:

Living a Better Story Seminar from All Things Converge Podcast on Vimeo.

Overflow

This was the scene in my kitchen the other morning. I made a pot of coffee and went to the basement to switch the laundry. Not heavy multi-tasking, mind you. When I came up about 10 minutes later, this is what I found. A friend of mine on Facebook said it looked like a murder scene. Death by caffeine?

In my hurried state I had done everything to get the coffee ready (grind the beans, pour the water, turn on the pot)--except that I had forgotten to empty the coffee pot of the previous day's coffee. Result? Overflow. Serious overflow. Now I can sympathize a wee bit with BP.

The day before, in a discussion about preaching, a friend reminded me of the verse that says that out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34, Luke 6:45). I looked at those verses again and the context speaks of good trees producing good fruit and bad trees producing bad fruit. In other words, whatever we are filling up is what is going to come out as overflow.

This whole coffee spill caused me to stop and take stock of a few things:

1. My busy summer. How do I get to a point where I'm doing so much? This photo is the result of multi-tasking that is not working. One thing at a time, I remind myself. Be present in each moment.

2. What am I filling my heart with? In my preaching and in my everyday speech and actions, my "overflow" will come from my heart. So what I am filling my heart with? How can I be more attentive to Christ's love for us so that when I speak, it is out of the overflow of the abundance of Christ's love for us?

3. The power of God to speak in the everyday and the ordinary. I am quick to caution those who come to me wanting a "burning bush" experience or a clear answer from God. When I think of Moses in the wilderness or Isaiah in the Temple or Elijah on the mountaintop, I'm not sure we want to ask for those experiences. A much harder task is being attentive to how God is speaking all the time in the everyday.

I'd love to have you over for coffee, but most of it's on the floor.

Books I'm Reading

From time to time I like to share books I've read or am reading and a few thoughts on each. I am generally reading about a half dozen books at any given time, so some I'm further along in some than others.

Rob Bell's Drops Like Stars is the book inspired by his recent tour. This coffee-table book is a quick read, but do not be misled: it is also a thoughtful extended meditation on the relationship between suffering, creativity and God. It made me want to see his tour.

Aubrey Malphurs' Developing a Dynamic Mission for Your Ministry is a handy little volume on the importance of a robust and concise mission statement for congregations and parachurch organizations. He helpfully distinguishes between mission statements, vision statements and core values, all the while keeping the Great Commission in the Gospel of Matthew central. It is must-read for pastors and congregations interested in more than floundering.

Niel Cole's Organic Church is a primer on the recent house church movement in the United States. What I liked: his focus on the parable of the Sower and his challenge to "be church" rather than "go to church." What was missing: a robust sacramental theology (which is not surprising given his theological tradition). Worth reading, especially for denominations like mine who struggle in the area of small group ministries.

I am just beginning Beginning to Pray by Anthony Bloom, but heard a summary of it in a recent set of podcasts by Dn. Michael Hyatt. When it comes to prayer, we are all truly beginners, and this set of reflections is filled with depth and challenge.

Andy Stanley's Choosing to Cheat is all about the tough decisions we make each day about our work-life balance. Stanley asks some provocative and thoughtful questions about whom we are cheating and why. A must-read for men especially.

Swimming Lessons and Spiritual Formation

It is the time of year when many children are taking swimming lessons. Perhaps swimming lessons have much to teach us about the path of growth in faith and spiritual formation. I was reflecting today on the connections between swimming lessons, faith formation and intentional small group / discipleship group ministries.

Here are some thoughts:

1. Coaches support the fledgling swimmers. Good coaches know more than just how to swim; they know how to support others in the right ways to enable them to swim on their own.

2. Coaches know when to let go. For new swimmers to build confidence, it is important that they begin to swim and try new things on their own. Good coaches know when to let go.

3. Coaches can discern the correct combination of 1 and 2 based on the individual swimmer. In other words, there is not a "one size fits all" way to get a swimmer from A to B.

Do you have a mentor or spiritual father that can guide you, sometimes pushing, sometimes supporting? Do you have a group of "swimmers" that you regularly meet with that are on your same level of maturity in faith?

And, perhaps most importantly: Are you ready to jump in?

Prayer Rule

Do you have a prayer rule?

Summer is a time when many of our schedules are discombobulated. Add to this the frenzy of activity that punctuates this time of year with weddings, graduations and other commitments. So it is not surprising I find that about this time in June I crave the regularity and predictability of a schedule. I am also trying to be more regularly about exercise and writing and so have had to rethink my morning routine and this includes my prayer rule.

What is your prayer rule?

1. One of the first decisions to make is when you will pray each day and where. It is easy to underestimate the importance of a fixed time and location. Regularity in schedule and location actually helps to facilitate prayer.

2. How long will you pray? Be realistic, especially if you have never subscribed to a rule of prayer before. The temptation of all of us who desire to grow in our faith is to take on too much, too quickly. The advice of physical trainers is instructive here: incremental increases over time are far more powerful than trying to run a marathon with no training. You can damage your body through physical overexertion; you can also damage yourself through spiritual overexertion. Take it slowly.

3. What will you pray? Begin with the fixed prayers handed down to the church: the Lord's prayer, the Creeds, the Jesus prayer, the Psalms. These fixed prayers, once they become part of our regular practice, become the bedrock upon which faithful "free prayer" is built.

4. How will you be accountable? Share your prayer rule with your spouse, family member or close friend. Ask them to hold you accountable.

As you seek to develop a regular rule for prayer, may the Holy Spirit guide and direct you.

Johnny Cash Reading the New Testament

A podcast I enjoying listening to recommended the audio New Testament read by Johnny Cash. This came up in a discussion during our fellowship meal after worship this evening. We were discussing audio Bibles and the importance of the Word as an aural/oral word.

It is available via CD (see link above) or by audiobook download from iTunes or audible.com.

Happy listening!

Summer Series on Acts

This Sunday we begin a 15-week preaching/teaching series on the book of Acts. I am both excited and intimidated: Excited that the same Holy Spirit that descended on Pentecost will enliven and enlighten and sanctify us.... and intimidated since this is one of the books of the Bible I've spent considerably less time in.

Still... with prayer, patience and a stack of commentaries, I'm as ready as I'll ever be.

Do you know what the last word in the book of Acts is? Unhindered.

Tweeting the Synod Assembly

I will be tweeting our synod assembly this year. You can following along on my Twitter account. I also have some colleagues who will be Twittering as well. The hashtag to follow along is #nwosa.

In general, I will try to avoid tweeting during worship, though it may make sense to post highlights of the preaching. We shall see.

From Radio to iTunes

Tomorrow our synod gathers in assembly. As part of this gathering we will elect a Bishop, vote on various items and share in worship, Bible study and fellowship.

I am leading a workshop on technology and faith formation entitled "From Radio to iTunes." The second half of the workshop will be some nuts and bolts stuff on how we moved from literally driving a cassette tape to a nearby radio station to uploading digitized audio of worship services and podcasting sermons (and how easy this can be!). The first half is the substantive part, reflecting on the intersection of technology and (faith) formation. I will draw on some of the work of Marshall McLuhan and Shane Hipps and am looking forward to the discussion.

What are you struggles with new technologies? Faith formation?

Email Better

One thing I think most churches struggle with is communication. On the institutional end, churches often fail to get information out in a timely way to the people that need it the most. And on the receiving end, members sometimes fail to receive the information once it's put out there. Suffice to say, I've never heard of a church that "overcommunicated" or had an A+ in this area.

One area I am interested in improving in is e-mail [Does anyone still use the dash in e-mail anymore?]. How can we do it better? How can we use it more effectively? And, especially, how can it be used faithfully in service of the Gospel?

One book that I have found very helpful is Send by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe. They do two things in one volume: 1) analyze the pitfalls and common mistakes people make with email and 2) give suggestions for how to email better. Rather than provide a complete review, I'd like to share some insights--at least what I remember--from when I read it several months ago.

1. Use the subject line. Most people seriously underestimate the importance of a good subject line. The key rule: consider the recipient. Just because it makes sense to you doesn't mean it will make sense to them. Consider your relationship with the person receiving the message and the kind of response your are hoping for. Caution: using the words "urgent" or "important," especially when in all caps or with a dozen exclamation marks will generally insure that your message will not be treated as such.

2. One item per message. I confess to transgressing this far too often. The temptation is to include everything you are thinking of, rather than thinking how it will be received. Again, begin with the recipient in mind. Unlike handwritten letters, the beauty of email is that you can send multiple messages (with good subject lines, of course).

3. Keep it brief. I once saw a website that suggested that most email messages can be accomplished in two to five sentences. If you are going on longer than a few sentences, you probably need to either (A) send the information as an attachment or (B) pick up the phone. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I am amazed at how many messages can be only a few sentences long.

4. If your blood pressure rises, wait. I have burned myself on this one too many times. My rule now is this: If If I have even the slightest emotional reaction to a message, I wait at least 24 hours before responding. The more intense my initial reaction, the more likely I will respond with a phone call or a face-to-face conversation. Chances are that you were reading far too much into the sender's intent to begin with.

5. Email is never a substitute for good face-to-face communication. We know this and yet we seldom practice it. Face-to-face conversations take time, but are far better in the long run. So much of what we want to communicate comes through body language and our tone of voice, both of which get missed in e-conversations. This becomes more important the less close you are with the person. Good friends can e-argue with the best of them, but new acquaintances should tread more lightly.

6. Address the sender personally and sign it personally. I cannot overemphasize the importance of "Dear [Name]," and "Sincerely, [Your Name]." It takes just a few seconds. Just do it.

That's what I remember. What frustrations do you have with email--or with communication in general?

The Logic of Easter

We are now one week into the great Season of Easter, a week of weeks that reaches from Easter Sunday to the Day of Pentecost (May 23 this year). I have always been fascinated by the "logic of the lectionary." What are the deep resonances of the cycle of readings that we share with many Christians for our regular Sunday worship gatherings? What is the internal coherence of the church's rhythms and structures? How does it all fit together? What does it say about Christ, our Hope--and where do we find our lives in Him?

The Easter Season is an extended time for the Church to wrestle faithfully with these questions: What does it mean that this One, Jesus of Nazareth, is risen from the tomb, alive and among us, and making all things new? What does it mean that we who are baptized into Him take the shape of our lives from his risen life? Put more simply: Who is this Jesus and what does he mean for us?

1. The first Sunday of Easter declares the bare fact of Resurrection. Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, has been raised from the dead. He is not simply an historical figure, a person of legend, but a living, breathing being who encounters us. In Christ, Resurrection--which had been seen as a future reality--has invaded the present. All things are being made new in Him. Thus Resurrection it not simply about "where we go when we die," but touches upon every facet of life here and now and in the age to come.

2. The second Sunday of Easter is also known as "Thomas Sunday," for it features "doubting" Thomas as a central figure. However the true central figure (not surprisingly) is Christ himself: showing up breathing peace, giving the Holy Spirit, sending the disciples, entrusting to them the keys to the kingdom and making himself bodily available to his followers as the Crucified and Risen One. One cannot help but see the connections to the Christian celebration of Holy Communion in which the same Risen Christ makes himself bodily available to us, breathing peace, giving the Holy Spirit, entrusting to us the keys of the kingdom and sending us as his disciples.

3. The third Sunday of Easter is a word about forgiveness and rehabilitation and what these realities look like on Jesus' terms. The verbal tie in John's Gospel centers around the charcoal fire. It is around a charcoal fire that Peter first denies Christ; it is around another charcoal fire that Peter is forgiven, made new, and given a new life ("Feed my sheep...").

4. The fourth Sunday of Easter is "Good Shepherd Sunday," with passages drawn from John 10. This year we hear about Jesus' providential care for us, his sheep. We know Him and are known by Him. It is Sunday of deep intimacy and challenge.

5. The fifth Sunday of Easter revisits part of the Maundy Thursday Gospel text as we contemplate what it means to love one as an expression of Christ's love and precisely as our witness to the world. It is a time for the Church to look internally at how it patterns its life together to reflect the One who gave his life for her.

6. The sixth Sunday of Easter revisits the peace given on Thomas Sunday and speaks another word about the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, that Jesus is giving to his disciples.

Ascension (40 days after Easter Sunday) celebrates that God deeply and irrevocably shares his life with us. For as Jesus returns to the Father, he does so as the One who is God and Man, bringing our flesh, which he has redeemed, into the very life of God.

7. The seventh Sunday of Easter explores again the witness of the Church itself and pushes us to consider the sin of disunity within the Church. The "oneness" to be lived by the power of the Holy Spirit among Jesus' followers is the same "oneness" that is shared among the persons of the Holy Trinity.

Easter blessings as we journey together to the Fires of Pentecost...

IC XC + NIKA

Christ is risen, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life! He is risen! Indeed, He is risen! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Good Friday II: Cliff Hanger

This evening I was talking to my son about the Crucifixion and shared that this Friday is "Good" precisely because we know how the story turns out, that it ends not with the cross but with the Resurrection. He replied, "But sometimes I wish it was a cliff hanger." Indeed.

These photos show the Resurrection window through the lens of the cross, reminding us that the two are never really separate.

"It is finished."

Good Friday I: Thorns and Chi-Rho

I took this photo to capture the crown of thorns on the cross as a close up. I inadvertently also captured the Chi-Rho on the ceiling of the chancel. So there it is: Jesus' crown of thorns and a word about his title, "Messiah" (Christos in Greek, the first two letters of which form the Chi (X) and the Rho (P)).

Other common inscriptions on crosses are INRI: _J_esus of _N_azareth, _K_ing of the _J_ews (in Latin, of course) and IHS, the first three letters of "Jesus."

My favorite, of course, is the inscription on many stamps used to mark the bread of the Eucharist: IC XC + NIKA. IC: the first and last letters of "Jesus." XC: the first and last letters of Christos, Christ. NIKA: "conquers."

"What I have written, I have written."

Maundy Thursday

This is the second year we have done the footwashing as part of the Maundy Thursday Eucharist. It is a very humbling and moving part of worship. One of these years I think I'm going to read from Dr. Seuss's "Foot Book," to describe the variety of "feet we meet." The diversity of those whom God calls into his kingdom is always astonishing to me.

In John's Gospel the Cross is Jesus' glorification, so the footwashing, I think, represents the nadir of his descent: doing Gentile slave work, taking the lowest position.

"But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place..."

Triduum

The church now enters into its longest service of the year: the Triduum--Latin for "Three Days." It is one extended service in three parts, beginning the evening of Maundy Thursday and lasting through Easter evening. This is a photo of the cross on Good Friday morning, the middle of the first day. It captures the heart of the Christian message: the Cross in light of the Resurrection.

"We proclaim Christ crucified..."

Spy Wednesday

Wednesday of Holy Week is celebrated in many places as "Spy Wednesday," commemorating Judas Iscariot's betrayal of our Lord Jesus. Here is my meditation for this day.

The photo is of a candle that had been burning near this icon of Christ. The candle had melted toward the icon, as if the icon was beckoning it closer, as if the light was drawn to the Light. As I said, sometimes all we need to do is sit back and watch the creation itself preach.

"The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world."

Holy Tuesday III: Shattered

On the walk from my house to my study at the church building, I was moving my alb from one arm to the other and caught the top of the vessel I use for the chrism oil and it shattered on the driveway. Not good.

This reminded me of a few things. First, Holy Week is a week of shattered expectations. From start to finish Jesus does not do what is "expected" of him... and for this I am deeply grateful. Second, it was a reminder for me to take a deep breath and to walk these days one at a time. As a wise colleague of mine said, "Pace yourself." Third, our Lord takes our shattered lives and begins to put them back together.

"But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us."

Holy Tuesday II: Chrism Mass

On Holy Tuesday, many Christians gather for a service called the Chrism Mass. Clergy renew their ordination vows and oil is blessed for anointing the sick, the dying, and those preparing for baptism. A priest I know says it is the time each year that he "gets his oil changed and his license renewed." I love that.

This is last year's chrism oil, being poured back into the earth from which it came. New olive oil is added and blessed and then will travel far and wide to anoint the foreheads of all who are in need of our Lord's healing touch.

"Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me"

Holy Tuesday I

I have great ecumenical colleagues in town. We decided this year to offer morning prayer for Monday - Wednesday of Holy Week, with each us rotating preaching assignments and worship leadership. On Tuesday, Pete and Jim led worship while I assisted at our synod's chrism mass with other clergy in our synod.

This was the beginning of the fog that morning. It got worse as I drove south. This photo shows the dense fog and the sun piercing through it. So goes Holy Week: the dense fog our lives penetrated by the Light of the Son.

Palm Sunday

This is the first in a short series of photo essays for Holy Week. Even though this is probably the busiest week of the year for me, I find that it is also a week in which I am deeply captivated by the world around me, especially as the whole creation preaches.

This first photo is of the Palm Sunday "trail" that my son put together the evening of Palm Sunday. What it like about it is that it captures the palm branches and the coats that were strewn in the path of Jesus as he makes his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

"If these were silent, even the stones would shout out."

What to do with Judas? (Spy Wednesday)

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

For a good part of the church’s history, this Wednesday has been celebrated as “Spy Wednesday,” a commemoration of sorts, of Judas’ negotiated betrayal of Jesus with the chief priests.

It was a few years ago, I think, when we did dramatic “personalities of the Passion” for our Lenten Wednesday series. Drawing on some of the best minds and insightful scholars, I crafted a “Judas” for my monologue who was a zealous zealot, almost in the manner of St. Paul, whose chief motivation for handing Jesus over was because Jesus wasn’t revolutionary enough, or not the kind of Messiah or Revolutionary that he expected. In other words, I painted a very sympathetic Judas, a Judas that was palatable, a Judas we can understand, even “connect” with. But is this the real Judas, the Judas of the Scriptures? I think not. And I repent.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the work of biblical scholars and am indebted to many for insights into the biblical text that I would never have seen on my own. But sometimes I think I extend my trust too far. And I also appreciate the art of drama, of acting, both as an art form and as a creative way of engaging the Bible and its people—even the darker ones. But sometimes when over-interpretation meets dramatic flair, sometimes important things—namely the Scriptural witness itself—gets left behind.

Did you hear those few verses from St. Matthew’s Gospel this morning? Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What will you give me if I betray him to you?" They paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him (Matthew 26:14-16). That’s it. Done deal. Thirty pieces of silver.

The Gospel of John echoes this simple motivation of greed by attributing it to Judas as one of his motivations for his protest of Mary of Bethany’s act of devotion when she anoints Jesus with a generous amount of expensive perfume: He [Judas] said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it (John 12:6). Not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief.

A greedy thief. Thirty pieces of silver. Seems so base, so crude, so overly-simplistic. Surely Judas didn’t betray the Lord Christ for simply thirty pieces of silver. Surely he did not hand him over for something as crude as greed. Or did he?

A zealous Judas we can identify with and is a bit more palatable to our modern sensibilities. A disappointed Judas we can nod along with. But a simply greedy Judas? That’s too simplistic. Too much raw evil. Too much exchanging the beauty of truth for the ugly face of selfishness. But there it is: Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.

And it is on this day, Spy Wednesday, that we realize we could do the same. And it’s not just Judas. For which of the other eleven did not run away? Which of the “big three” didn’t fall asleep in the Garden? Even Peter, Prince of the Apostles, denies the Lord three times. None of us is any better.

And so it is perhaps fitting what we do on this Spy Wednesday: look Judas square in the face and see our own reflection. Look Judas in the face and realize the gravity of our own sin. Look Judas in the face and realize how often we betray our Lord for chump change, for base desires, for selfish reasons.

Yes, perhaps all this Judas stuff is very fitting for Wednesday of Holy Week: for it bring us to our knees, brings us very low, so that the only place to look is up—to a Cross and the One crucified upon it, to a Table laden with bread and wine—and down, to the Son of Man who is the Son of God, kneeling to wash our feet.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Thorns

I am always amazed at the way in which nature "speaks" a word about the Word, Jesus Christ. The first flowers of spring--which have hidden themselves once again--speak "Resurrection" even before Easter.

Lest we get too far ahead of ourselves, however, this tree of thorns reminds us also of the cost, of the depths to which Christ descended for us.

I recently heard a podcast in which a saint was quoted as meditating on the goal of creation: the goal of all wood is the Cross, the goal of all rock is the empty tomb, etc. It is almost as if creation is built to preach about the One through whom all things were made.

Ooh Ah!

You might overhear our youngest daughter calling out “Ooh Ah!” from time to time. She is not anticipating fireworks; these are her words for “Alleluia,” and she is specifically asking for a song, All Creatures Worship God Most High (#835 in the hymnal), a hymn I began singing to her at home a month or so ago. She gets even more intense the longer I wait to begin singing: “Ooh Ah! OOH Ah! OOH AH!” And so of course I give in, joyfully, and sing the song she knows best as “Alleluia!”

As I write this, it is still Lent and, in the practice of the Western Church, we keep the “Alleluias” often hidden in worship until the great celebration of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. This is a practice that has never sat quite right with me, for the bodily Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead is the central and most important reality of our faith. Our whole faith hinges on this event, this reality.

St. Paul’s writes about this in 1 Corinthians 15:12-28. He does a remarkable job of linking our resurrection with Jesus’ resurrection. He doesn’t mince words: If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins… those who have died in Christ have perished…. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ we are of all people most to be pitied. Everything, everything hangs on the Resurrection of Christ. If Christ has not been raised, then the shape of our entire life does not make sense. If Christ has not been raised, then we have wasted a good deal of our lives in worship and praise. If Christ has not been raised, we are lost in our sins and death is the final answer.

But, St.Paul says, in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. And because Christ is risen from the dead, we are given forgiveness of sins, life and salvation, not just in the world to come, but also right here, right now. Because Christ is risen from the dead, all of creation has been transformed. God’s final word is not one of death but of new life!

This, my brothers and sisters in Christ, is what we celebrate on Easter—and every Sunday, even in Lent. For every Sunday, the first day of the week, the first day of creation, the glorious eighth day of the new creation, is the Lord’s Day, a Day of Resurrection, a celebration of the Lord’s triumphal victory over sin, death and the devil. It is not so much that every Sunday is a little Easter but that every Easter is a HUGE Sunday! (Thanks to Laurence Hull Stookey for this insight in his book Calendar.)

So as Lent leads us into Holy Week and Holy Week into the glorious Season of Easter, perhaps the littlest ones among us understand it best of all. Ooh Ah! Indeed, little Lucy, “Ooh Ah!” “Ooh Ah!” indeed!

DST TLC

Last March I wrote about how Daylight Saving Time messes with our sleep / waking schedule so much that it's not unusual or surprising that we find ourselves grumpier than normal for a few days (or weeks).

One approach, of course, is to simply give in to this anger: at a spouse, child, or co-worker. Another approach is to use it as an opportunity to confess our sins and shortcomings and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to begin to cultivate the virtues in our life.

Throughout the long history of the church, seven grievous (or "deadly") sins were identified as being particularly serious or pernicious: pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth. How many of these rear their ugly heads the week following the Daylight Saving Time switch?

However, the Church in its wisdom, has "matched" these seven grievous sins with the seven capital virtues: humility, liberality (generosity), chastity, mildness, temperance, happiness and diligence (see also the "fruits of the Spirit" in Galatians 5:22-23).

Our battle with sin is a daily one. Let us all, by God's grace, fight the dark side of DST with some Spirit-filled TLC.

Bright Sadness

Alexander Schmemann, an Eastern Orthodox Christian theologian, has described Lent as a "bright sadness." I think I understand what he means.

I am still getting settled into my new study here at the church following our renovations. One item on my "to do" list is cleaning the windows.

This morning the sun has been exceptionally bright, which has a twofold effect on me. On the one hand, it cheers me, especially since I've had quite a bit of cabin fever as of late and cannot wait for spring to come in full force. The sun brightens my study and my life. On the other hand, it shows even more clearly how dirty my windows are and how much I need to clean to them, to tend to them.

To me, that is Lent in a nutshell. The Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, brightens our lives--indeed, He brightens the entire world--with his glorious Resurrection. Yet it is this same light that shines from his face that also exposes our dirty windows, our sin, our brokenness, our mess.

Lent and the Christian Life

There are many popular views of exactly what Lent is. If you grew up Lutheran, you probably remember extra church services on Wednesdays, a somber tone to worship even on Sundays and a focus on the Crucifixion. If you grew up in another Protestant denomination, perhaps you remember a time of preparation for Easter. If you were raised Roman Catholic, perhaps you remember meatless Fridays and fish fries—a tradition the Legion in town continues. Perhaps over the years you have tried giving something up (chocolate, coffee, sweets) or taking something on (extra devotions, Bible reading time, etc.). But have you ever stopped to ask: Why? Why Lent? Why these practices? Why this 40-day focus on things such as giving to the poor, prayer and fasting?

Sometimes I think Lent is seen as something we have to get through so that we can get to the really good thing: the joy of Easter. Lent is also often seen as a time of intense spiritual exercises: giving things up or fasting, giving to the poor and doing works of mercy, praying and reading Scripture. In both of these scenarios, Lent is something that we do for a while (40 days) and then are done. Whew! Thank goodness for Easter!

There is a sense in which Lent is preparation for Easter and there is a sense in which Lent is a time of intense spiritual exercises. But this month I want to focus on Lent itself: its purpose and its power. Lent is a time when we focus intently on two things: 1) Jesus’ passion, suffering and crucifixion and 2) our life of faith. Our worship will invite us to focus on the first; our faith practices of almsgiving/works of mercy, prayer and fasting—together called the Discipline of Lent—will invite us to focus on the second. And here is where the rubber hits the road. Lent is a time to focus intensely on things that are central to what it means to be a Christian all the time.

Lent is time of preparation: not so that we can stop doing “Lenten things” when Easter comes, but as an intense “boot camp” so that we can soldier on as Christians every day of the year. During Lent we focus on Jesus and his suffering on our behalf—and are invited to keep Jesus and his Cross before our eyes every day, in every situation. During Lent we give to the poor and perform works of mercy to all, so that we can begin to do this every day of our lives. During Lent we fast and give things up, so that we can begin every day to renounce not just stuff, but the sin that clings so close to us. During Lent we pray and read Scripture, so that every day our lives can be saturated by and surrounded by prayer and God’s word.

Easter does loom on the horizon. In fact, its joy is present even now. During these days let us continue our Lenten journey, becoming by grace who God has created us to be.

Living Like Jesus

I am reading The Year of Living Like Jesus by Ed Dobson (no relation to James Dobson as far as I can tell) and have been captivated by it. I am not sure whether or not to recommend the book or not. On the one hand, it is hard to put down and am I captivated by Dobson's authentic struggle to live the new life in Christ. On the other hand, I find myself amazed by how little of the fullness of the Christian faith he seems to have experienced, in terms of other non-evangelical Christian denominations.

A few things worth sharing have struck me so far:

1. The importance of regular, fixed prayers for the life in Christ.

Throughout the book, Dobson tries praying using the Catholic rosary, the Orthodox prayer rope and Episcopal prayer beads. He also finds praying the Scriptures to be a transformational experience. I too have found that fixed prayers have been the bedrock of my prayer life.

2. The link between practicing faith and the desire of faith.

Dobson tries to listen to each of the four Gospels every week on his iPod: a noble venture, to say the least. Every once in a while he comments that he is sick of listening to Scripture and praying and takes a short break. In doing both he shares this profound truth: The more he reads Scripture and prays, the more he wants to read Scripture and pray. On the other hand, the less he reads Scripture and prays, the less he wants to. I would echo this truth he has discovered: that there is a deep link between simply "doing" faith practices and the desire to do those practices. What is fascinating to me is the reality that doing precedes desire and not the other way around.

So if you are in a faith rut, just pray, just read Scripture--and let the desire follow!

3. The difficulty of walking in the Way of Jesus.

Anyone who has ever read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapters 5-7) realizes how difficult it is to authentically walk in the Way of Jesus. This is the greatest strength of Dobson's book as he wrestles with what it means to live in Christ in every aspect of his life.

In other news...

The Techno-Future? Email or Social Media?

I am not sure how I want to continue to update these posts. I am leaning away from email and more toward social media. You can be come a fan on Facebook, where I will post a link when I write a new piece on this blog. This is also linked to my Twitter account (MattMusteric). And our congregation has its own Facebook page as well. Another easy way to follow along is to subscribe to this blog through and RSS feed reader such as Google Reader. The idea, I suppose, with all of this is to put the information in the hands of those that are looking for it. So if you have not received an email in a while from me, check out new posts here on my blog.

Epiphany is Theophany

This weekend we will celebrate the Baptism of our Lord. The focus is squarely on Jesus and his baptism in the waters of the Jordan at the hands of John the Baptizer. But something much bigger is going on as Jesus emerges from this full-immersion river baptism.

God in all his fullness is revealed as Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Epiphany is Theophany.

In the most ancient tradition of the Church, Epiphany was celebrated before Christmas; the manifestation of God was celebrated before the birth was put on the Church calendar. In the Christian East, the focus of Epiphany was on the Baptism of our Lord. In the Christian West, Epiphany developed into a three-part celebration: 1) the visit of the wise men, 2) Jesus' baptism in the Jordan and 3) the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee in which Jesus turns the water into wine.

This weekend we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord. The skies are torn open and God is revealed as Holy Trinity. The Father speaks from heaven; the incarnate Son who is fully God and fully man emerges from the water; the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove.

In truth all Christian celebrations are celebrations of the Trinity, because this is who God is for all eternity. God was, is and always will be Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Before there was anything, any creation, before there was any "was," God was: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One God in three persons, existing in himself as perfect community, perfect communion.

What does this have to do with the Baptism of our Lord? With us? In the Baptism of our Lord, the Most Holy Trinity graces the waters of baptism and enfolds us into his life. In our Baptismal washing, we are enfolded into the One Who is Perfect Community and granted, by grace, a share in God's life, the life of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Happy Theophany!