Wed, 20 Sep 2023 14:59:29 -0700WeeblySat, 12 Sep 2015 14:17:56 GMThttp://brokensaintsandhealingsinners.com/broken-saints-blog/spiritual-but-not-religiousBreathe on me breath of God, fill me with your spirit and transform me into child and a saint of your kingdom. Breathe on me and teach me to walk in your ways. Amen.

     Something that is heard frequently today is, "I am spiritual but not religious." When I hear that what immediately pops into my mind is what does the person mean by those words, "spiritual," and "religious?"

     By spiritual or spirituality do we simply mean some kind of warm fuzzy feeling, a sense of the paranormal and spirits, or maybe a sense of awe when we look around at the mystery of life and the universe. What, exactly, is it to be "spiritual?"

     Secondly. what does one mean to say that one is not "religious?" Does it mean you just are spirit and that there are no consequences in your life of being "spiritual?" Or does it mean simply that you are not part of a community of faith or a church or a given denomination?

     What is the real purpose or value in being "spiritual" if it does not inform and give shape to how you live. In fact, is that even possible. Even if by spiritual one means that you practice a pattern of meditation isn't meditation a religious practice. Therefore practicing any form of expression flowing from one's sense of spirituality is specifically to be religious. If one's reflection in meditation leads one to an awareness of the unity of creation and a broad respect for life, including mosquitoes, ticks, and spiders and you therefore attempt to shape your behaviors so as not to kill any living thing is not that religious practice. Is not reading Matthew 25 and seeking  to care for the hungry, the naked, the sojourner, the imprisoned and the ill religious practice even if you do not attend a church or belong to a denomination or one of the major world religions. In other words to be spiritual has consequences and those are expressed in action, religious action.

     The book of James notes that faith (spirituality) without works is dead. The evidence of spirituality is naturally manifested in some form of incarnate, in the flesh, expression. A friend noted to me today that 12 step programs emphasize that without practice and ACTION, there is no real spirituality. That sounds about right to me.

     Religion is simply the expression of your spirit or what you believe, for better or worse. A bad spirituality leads to bad expressions and dark actions. A grace filled spirituality leads to acts of love and grace.

     What I believe that many people mean by not being religious is, however, something different, something that needs to be expressed more clearly. What I believe people mean when they say they are spiritual but not religious is that they do not participate in the institutional practice of a specific faith. They mean they are not a part of a particular congregation, denomination, or any other communal expression of a spirituality. This I can understand because sometimes these communities, these groups of believers in a particular confession often demand authority over how the spiritual journey is expressed and how its orthodoxy is maintained protecting its purity and stifling the individual's path of self-discovery, healing, and expression. Sometimes communal bodies have dark spirits bound up in dominance and control.

     So, yes, if you are spiritual you are religious and if you are religious is an expression of your spirituality and spiritual health. Sometimes that spirituality is dark, troubled and burdened and it leads to horrific expressions but a healthy spirit leads to incredible acts of kindness and grace. To paraphrase Forest Gump, "the spirit is as the spirit does." Not every spirituality should be institutionalized. We have seen that again and again. Consider the Spanish Iquisition, the Crusades, and the community of Jim Jones. There are days when I don't want to be part of the institutional church, too, but my spirituality and religious practice are inseparable.




]]>Wed, 09 Sep 2015 22:55:48 GMThttp://brokensaintsandhealingsinners.com/broken-saints-blog/the-politics-of-faithLord of the prophets, grant your people bold voices in proclaiming your word to a world that is afraid to embrace your truth. Keep us steadfast in your word. Amen

     Recently some politicians have decried statements of the Pope Francis suggesting that he should tend to things spiritual and leave things political alone. Such suggestions were rarely heard when past popes had addressed topics, such as, abortion which were often exploited by some for political leverage. But behind the idea that the Pope should keep silent or should speak only to certain subjects is the issue of the intersection of faith and life.

     I am not sure how one separates faith and life in that way. We teach that from the moment we are baptized God is the central reality in our life and that we have been freed from sin and death to be a new creation in the Body of Christ. Christ’s whole ministry was spent impacting the everyday reality of people’s lives. He fed people, he healed people, and he taught people. He taught them about the practical realities of sin and grace and how to live their lives as caretakers of the least of these.

     Each Sunday we confess together that God is the creator of all. In Genesis we learn that as creator God has given us a tremendous responsibility as stewards of that creation. Such stewardship means a responsibility to care for, protecting and nurturing, this planet rather than exploiting and abusing it.

     We confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior speaking of God incarnate and present to us in the midst of history. Jesus calls us to love God and neighbor showing us how by loving we are to set aside self interest for the good of all. Jesus shows us the power of the cross and how accepting the limits of life daily and the contrasting abundance of life with God sets us free to pour out our lives for others.

     And we confess the Holy Spirit and all the ways through which God continues to support and nurture us. In the Holy Spirit, God is continually reforming our lives by grace through faith, through the support of community, through the sacraments, and a promise that the end of this life is not the end of our relationship with God.

     What the Pope sees and understands is that for the believers true faith touches every aspect of life. There is no way for it not to impact politics because it impacts life. It shapes how we interact with our world as creation, it opens our eyes to see the suffering and the needs of those around us, and it calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies and keeps us in love with God and our neighbor.

     If one’s faith is not impacting the choices one makes and the way in which one lives life why would one bother with attempting to claim the label, “Christian.” Just calling oneself a Christian means very little. Following Christ and living out our baptismal calling is what it means to be Christian. To be a Christian is to be continually reformed, “imago dei,” in the image of Christ. Being a Christian has consequences, it is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called, “costly grace.” It is God who fashions saints out of sinners setting them loose in the world  and that changes everything.


]]>Wed, 09 Sep 2015 00:52:28 GMThttp://brokensaintsandhealingsinners.com/broken-saints-blog/what-is-a-congregation-to-doLord of creation, you make all things new.  As you moved over the face of the chaos and called forth the order of creation let your Spirit of wisdom blow across our lives raising us to new ways of seeing and doing ministry granting us new life in your name. Amen.

     Ministry is always changing because the world in which we are called to witness is always changing. Jesus calls us to be in the world but not of the world, "in, not of." That is a challenge that the people of God have struggled with from the very beginning of the church. 

     This understanding of being in, not of the world penetrates every aspect of our understanding of who it is to be the church, the Body of Christ. Many congregations today are struggling with what it means to be the church today as membership rolls dwindle and the numbers of the active worshipping community decrease.

     The culture today has changed drastically from that of the last two generations. Two to three generations ago in the 1930s life in Juniata County centered around the home, the farm and the church. The Depression had taken away many resources for households and multiple generations often lived on the same property and sometimes in the same home.

     Following WW2 a golden age of employment in both manufacturing and small businesses arose. Many families of four to six lived in their own prefab homes often from 900- 1100 square feet. Many of those homes were delivered as kits but the dream of home ownership expanded across a whole generation. In this time schools and school activities like sports replaced the church as the center of community social life.

     Today the average family has two to four members, parents and kids combined, many are single income households and yet now the average home that is built is well over 2400 square feet. For many, the church and the religious training of the family has become a secondary concern. Sports programs of midget football, soccer, AAU sports and more encroach upon Sunday mornings if not for the games themselves at least for the travel time as the local community is not even the center of life but rather the scope and breadth of leagues sometimes with traveling times as long as an hour and more. At the same time the digital pace of life pressures us demanding instant response times and work schedules that never end even when at home or with the family.

     All of this challenges what our assumptions have been for congregational life. Is worship a singular Sunday event or are additional opportunities needed throughout the week? Is worship only valid led by an organ with two hundred year old hymns or can a Praise Band and the latest Christian pop song feed us spiritually, as well? Does Bible study require sitting together or can it be conducted on line with groups on Facebook or Google? How do churches with large and inefficient edifices with $15,000 heating costs and magnificent worship spaces filled with beautiful liturgical art survive when the average congregation in America today averages about 50 at Sunday worship? These questions and a couple dozen more mean the churches of today are under great social pressures and a race to keep up with a changing world.

     The truth is that Messiah and thousands of congregations across the U.S. need to stop and think about how we shape and structure our ministry in the congregation and the community for the future. I may well be the last pastor to serve Messiah as a single congregation. Conversations are regularly being held on the ELCA clergy board seeing tremendous transformations in both seminary education and the structures of pastoral and congregational ministries. We may need to consider forming a parish as we once were with St. Stephen’s. St. John’s, Belleville is just one possibility among others in our area for such an arrangement. Such a decision would be back to the future. Yes, Messiah is not the only congregation experiencing these pressures. In fact, those congregations not feeling the pressures of the changing culture are far more unusual.

     Whatever the future holds our central belief and confession is that God is faithful and the power of the Holy Spirit blows constantly across the Body of Christ making all things new. This is central to who we are. As people of the Reformation who are anchored in the living Word of God this is not the first generation to face bold changes in the life of the church. Within this country’s history we have been through the birth of a nation, a war dividing that nation, the collapse of the economy not once but several times. We have seen changes in the structure of home and family and God has been faithful through all of those and God abides with us still.

     Jesus loves us this I know for the Bible tells me so. God’s love endures all things. 


]]>Tue, 08 Sep 2015 14:42:35 GMThttp://brokensaintsandhealingsinners.com/broken-saints-blog/whats-a-christian-to-doLord of all nations, teach us that true peace begins with our love of you and finds fulfillment in our love of neighbor. Give us the courage to risk living and loving all your children so that our lives may be continual signs of your grace. Amen.

     Being in the world means exactly that. We are called to be in the midst of the world. It is where we are to be. It is not, however, how we are to be. We are not "of the world." We are of Christ. We are to love God above everything and our neighbor as ourself. These are the things for which we have been set apart, things for which we have been made holy.

     The world is obsessed with many things. It is obsessed with wealth and money, with power, with security, etc. etc. None of these things are what Jesus identified as essential to the kingdom of God. Jesus said love God more than anything including those things I just mentioned and love your neighbor as yourself.

     Presently, there is a huge international refugee crisis involving people from Syria and the region. These are people caught between the fragile governments and tyrants of the region and the anarchists of ISIL/ISIS. These refugees include families fleeing in an attempt to save their future and hope for their children. People so desperate they are willing to risk dying at sea on overloaded boats and floats to avoid immediate threat of death. 

     This is the world we are in. How will we as the church respond? How will hold forth our calling to love our neighbor in fulfillment of our love of God? Are we willing to risk security for the sake of hospitality? Are we willing to share our resources however limited they may be because others have nothing? Are we willing to call our government to accountability for our part in the issues of the region? Or we will say we have done too much already and simply dismiss ourselves from any responsibility and any willingness to  risk ourselves for others?

   When asked to host 50 Syrian refugees 10,000 homes in Iceland committed to welcoming Syrian refugees into their midst. Pope Francis has challenged every parish in Europe to welcome a refugee family into their midst.  U.S. recently had committed only to receiving 1,500.  Can't we, also, do more? 

     Yes, most of the refugees are Muslim.  Jesus welcomed encounters with many others of different faith and cultures like Samaritans and Syro-phoenicians.  Yes, they are our neighbors, too. Yes, these refugees today come from an area of the world rife with hate for us and there is risk in that. Jesus welcomed the outcaste even breaking bread with them.  Yes, they are our neighbors, too.  Yes, the expense of aiding up to 6.5 million refugees is intimidating. Jesus taught the rich young ruler that giving away everything for the kingdom of God gains more than it loses. Yes, they are our neighbor, too. Yes, many of us are struggling as part of a diminishing Middle Class in America. Yes, they are our neighbors, too. Will we love our neighbor?

     We are called to be in the world but not of it. Christ has died to set us free from death and the fear of  dying so that being of Christ we can risk incredible things because every man, woman, and child is our neighbor.  What are we to do?



]]>Tue, 14 Jul 2015 16:09:34 GMThttp://brokensaintsandhealingsinners.com/broken-saints-blog/for-the-sake-of-the-gospel-a-new-path-forwardSpirit Divine, your power is brought forth in the living Word of God, Jesus Christ. Grant us so to hear and trust his will revealed in and through the written word that we may, continually learn to live dependent on his grace and love. Amen

    In the church at Corinth a question appears to have risen concerning whether the members of the community of faith should marry or refrain from marriage in expectation of Jesus return. Paul's response  in 1 Corinthians 7 can be outlined as speaking to the following questions.

A. Does marriage still serve a purpose as followers wait for the impending return of Jesus and how should believers married to non-believers behave toward their spouses?

B. What is Paul's understanding of abstinence for himself and in marriage?

C. What does marriage accomplish? How does it relate to the work of the gospel?

D. How is this a good? How is Paul's advice to those who are married similar to his advice to other believers? See circumcision and slavery.

E. What is the purpose of allowing or even encouraging marriage? And how does it impact devotion to God?

    Paul sees marriage as an undue burden on the Gospel and devotion to God's work.  It is best to be celibate so that there are no distractions from the work of witnessing to the Gospel. In contrast being married is a huge responsibility because it presumes that one is completely given to another person and that the needs of that person become the natural end of  true self giving love. The husband's body is the wife's and the wife's body is the husband's. Neither husband's nor wife's body belongs only to themselves any longer but each one to the other. To withhold oneself from one's partner must only occur by mutual consent and this is for only a time for the purpose of devotion in prayer to God (v. 5). Paul understands people enjoy sex and can be filled with passion. Marriage therefore in Paul's eyes is a firewall against unrestrained passion and a lack of self-control leading to chaos and disruption in the community thus hindering the promotion of the Gospel. Paul understands marriage not as a necessity for he remains celibate but rather a means of restraining the passions and temptations of the flesh (v. 5b), a way of maintaining good order. He calls his thoughts on marriage a concession and not a command and acknowledges both his abstinence and others' marriage are unique gifts.

    Paul then continues seeing in the marriage between a believer and non-believer the possibility that God can work for the salvation of the non-believer. If the non-believer wishes to leave the marriage Paul counsels to let them go. If, however, they are willing to stay then one should remain married and fill all the responsibilities of a spouse because through the relationship their partner may come to Christ. Faith may follow through a faithful and loving witness of the married believer, only God knows (v.16).

    For believers Paul encourages the maintenance of other relationships as they are (v.17,18-28) and circumcised or not, slave or not is irrelevant in God's kingdom because we can serve wherever and however we were when God called us. In other words the work of the Gospel is preeminent over all conditions of life. If freedom is possible for the the slave, good, take your freedom because being free you can better serve the Gospel but if one is not a freeman do not worry because you are already free in Jesus Christ. 

    Paul closes by noting that to marry is not sin even if he, Paul, thinks life is simpler for those who are not married (v. 33-36). Expecting the return of Christ he encourages a chaste and celibate life but releases those who feel the pressure of age and commitment to a fiance` the freedom to marry as she or he is given to do.

    Looking at 1 Corinthians 7 we see that Paul is always most concerned for the work of the Gospel and God's kingdom. He, also, recognizes how the realities of human life intrude and constrain what the individual is able to do. He will not disparage those who are attempting to be faithful within their circumstances. That includes faithfulness to God's work while simultaneously guiding and shaping their passions, thus establishing good order and control.

    How then can these verses help us to maintain primacy of the work of the kingdom by uncovering new ways for gay and lesbian brothers and sisters to control passion and self-centered service of the flesh. In other words, can marriage serve this same purpose for gays and lesbians exactly as Paul conceives marriage is at work for the unions of men and women.

    Note that in 1 Corinthian 7 Paul places no emphasis on marriage for bringing forth children but rather on husbands and wives meeting each others needs. These needs include both physical and emotional intimacy. The body of each belongs to the other. Each is given to the care and love of the other. Through this mutual ownership there is a presumption against promiscuity and abandonment to self-centered servicing of the flesh. To give oneself to another outside of marriage takes what belongs to one's partner and gives it away. It is a type of theft. Understanding marriage in this manner is something that can be fulfilled by gays and lesbians and, also, brings the discipline and selfless living Paul promoted into their lives. The result is therefore an increase in order and a freeing of the individual to grow in service of the Gospel. Commitment to real marital union, intimacy and steadfast faithfulness thus benefits the work of Christ and the kingdom of God for both straight and gay.

    It is at this point important to note that none of the traditional marriage vows are unable to be fulfilled by gay and lesbian couples. "In the presence of God and this community I ____, take you, ____, to be my wife/husband; to have and to hold from this day forward, in joy and in sorrow, in plenty and in want, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live. This is my solemn vow." (ELW) There is no expression of specific carnal relations in these binding vows.

    The expectations of marital fidelity for gays and lesbians should be no different than it is for straight marriages. The marital union until death do us part is the closest to divine promise and covenant that two people can share.

    And yet sometimes those promises fail. They fail because we all fall short of the glory of God not because they are promises between hetero or homo sexual couples.  So to this we must say, "May God's grace continue to heal our sins."

    Is the union of gay and lesbian couples the primary vision of the Bible for marriage and the creating and development of families and new generations? No, but it can serve the kingdom of God by increasing order and space for the proclamation of the Gospel and it restrains self-centeredness in the flesh and promotes an increased understanding of what it means to be called to lay one's life down for another. I believe these are things Paul would celebrate and can be sufficient reasons for us to join in the celebration.

    It is even possible, no, rather it is a responsibility for us to call our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters to marriage so that order may reign and excess passion be restrained for the sake of the Gospel. It is possible we have been focused on the wrong side of this issue for far, far too long. The Spirit is blowing and the Word of God can show us the way.

   


]]>Mon, 13 Jul 2015 15:18:04 GMThttp://brokensaintsandhealingsinners.com/broken-saints-blog/what-to-make-of-marriageGracious Spirit, blow through our lives and enable us to hear the Living Word as it moves across our lives. Still our fears and teach us to love our brothers and sisters and to support them as together we seek to be faithful to your will. Amen.

    As the church attempts to wrestle with the understanding of marriage and its role in the lives of gay and lesbian couples the focus has been almost exclusively on Bible verses many individuals hear as condemning these relationships. At the same time little attention has been given to passages that might point us towards how those relationships might serve the kingdom of God. Or more importantly, can we see a positive function for marriage in the lives of gays and lesbians in a world/creation Paul states falls short of God's glory across its breadth.

    Among the passages used to condemn homosexual relationships each passage has a history and a context that makes it less than directly applicable to the modern understanding and nature of homosexual relationships. Does this then mean the door is thrown wide open to any and all sexual behaviors or does it mean instead we need to look further and to continue wrestling with scripture allowing its authority to continue to speak to us in a deeper and authentically healing manner?

    Much of the work of Roman Catholic theologians has given less attention to passages used as a rejection of same sex behavior and focused instead on the importance of a rationalistic approach to natural order and the Biblical blessing and call to be fruitful and multiply. Because same-sexed relationships cannot fulfill that command biologically the argument has been made that those relationships must be rejected. This view sees and hears the biblical descriptions of  man and woman coming together as one as being descriptive of the only possibility of God's work and socio-sexual order within creation. We must ask, however, is this a sufficient description of the situation and the orders of creation or is there the possibility of much more at work for the good of creation.

    Observing the natural world we see that human beings are not the only species created by God that have regularly occurring same-sex pairings. Gulls, Mallards and Penguins  among other birds all have such pairings. Among mammals giraffes, lions, sheep, and hyenas demonstrate the behavior and among "higher" order mammals dolphins, elephants, bonobos and other apes, do as well. In other words, same-sex pairing occurs across a wide swath of the evolutionary tree.

    Since God is confessed the source of all of creation is this reality some expression of the fall or is something else at work. Even if it is an expression of the fall how is it to be addressed by us as equally flawed participants in creation. Do we address people in gay relationships as marked with an unforgivable sin or is it one among many taboos from Leviticus chapter 18 and following that are set aside as no longer relevant among those saved by grace apart from the law?  Are there other solutions and means of addressing the reality and persistence of gay and lesbian relationships than simply to condemn same-sex pairings among the offspring of Adam and Eve? And if not, what about every other species among which same-sex pairings are found? Must we condemn them, also?

    How are we to see and respond within the tension of God's Word with its authority for the believer in the body of Christ and the reality we observe around us?

    In Genesis chapter 2:18 we read that it is not good that man should be alone. We are fearfully and wonderfully made for community. Few persons exist well without some expression of community. Even among ascetics practicing extreme isolation there is often some expression of community as a support. Is marriage therefore the only expression of how the natural need for community is or can be addressed in our lives as sexual creatures. Or is the uniting of male and female in one flesh a single expression among among others including celibacy and and gay pairings through which God has brought forth through the generations of creation? Are there other roles or even parallel roles for persons of same-sex relationships who, also, need community and for whom the need of deeply intimate pairing is important?

    Luther criticized the Roman Catholic church of his day for enforcing celibacy on all clergy and saw various sexual disorders as evident of problem of unnatural expectations of sexual creatures with powerful passions. He had no concept of homosexuality as we do today but he was able to observe the dysfunction that occurred when one denied individuals the support of intimate, committed, enduring relationships. This is a dysfunction that the church has continued to struggle with wherever celibacy is forced rather than seen as a unique gift.

    Scripture written thousands of years ago has never directly addressed every cultural development or every emerging event in human history. Always scripture must be read and applied as life moves forward, even the Amish communities are dragged slowly forward in a changing world of technology and science as many who did not allow phones wired onto their property now use wireless cell phones. The margin notes of the ancient midrash are a powerful example of the work of Rabbis and scribes applying the scriptures to their present context of life.

    Given all this is done by broken saints who themselves fall short of the glory of God it is sometimes done well and sometimes tragically. Instead of looking for passages to be selectively yanked out of context for condemning others in what other ways might scripture speak to us today and to the relationships between humans, creation,  and community with a power to heal and transform broken saints into healing sinners?

    In a church once similarly divided by difficult issues Paul spoke words that focused on the purpose Christian lives and  the importance of marriage in enabling that prime directive of the church, witnessing to Jesus Christ, to be fulfilled. To the church at Corinth which seemed to find endless ways to divide the community and the body of Christ Paul wrote the following.:

 1 Corinthians 7:1   Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry. 2 But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. 3 The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. 5 Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6 I say this as a concession, not as a command. 7 I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. 8 Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. 9 But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. 10 To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. 11 But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife. 12 To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13 And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. 15 But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. 16 How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? 17 Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. 18 Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised. 19 Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God's commands is what counts. 20 Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him. 21 Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you--although if you can gain your freedom, do so. 22 For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord's freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ's slave. 23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men. 24 Brothers, each man, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation God called him to. 25 Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy. 26 Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for you to remain as you are. 27 Are you married? Do not seek a divorce. Are you unmarried? Do not look for a wife. 28 But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this. 29 What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; 30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away. 32 I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs--how he can please the Lord. 33 But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world--how he can please his wife-- 34 and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world--how she can please her husband. 35 I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. 36 If anyone thinks he is acting improperly toward the virgin he is engaged to, and if she is getting along in years and he feels he ought to marry, he should do as he wants. He is not sinning. They should get married. 37 But the man who has settled the matter in his own mind, who is under no compulsion but has control over his own will, and who has made up his mind not to marry the virgin--this man also does the right thing. 38 So then, he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does even better. 39 A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord. 40 In my judgment, she is happier if she stays as she is--and I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

    How might these words speak to us today in the midst of our present division and disruption within the body of Christ?  Is it better to extend the civil order of marriage to gays and lesbians so that that loneliness can be abated and the passion for intimacy and community can be fulfilled and order maintained for the sake of the gospel? And if this helps to bring order and comfort stabilizing relationships, delivering person from fear, and freeing energy for the service of the Gospel of Jesus Christ how is that different from Paul's advice to married couples and the purpose of marriage?

    For the moment, please think about these thoughts because I believe this may be a passage that gives us a path forward rather than freezing us into past contexts which do not apply to the present relationships. I will share my thoughts in the days ahead but wanted to give you time to contemplate the possibilities and to seek God's will in prayer.

Blessings to all of you. May God's Spirit blow across your lives.

Please note: I expect to be editing these thoughts for several days.

]]>Mon, 29 Jun 2015 14:52:30 GMThttp://brokensaintsandhealingsinners.com/broken-saints-blog/dang-that-guy-can-preachLord of heaven and earth, bless us with a thousand tongues to sing the glory of our hope in Jesus Christ. He did not see even his own life as something to be withheld in his love of the broken and sinful. Grant us his grace that we may so pour out our lives that all may receive your kingdom without regard to race, gender, or any other way in which we separate ourselves one from another.

    On Friday President Barack Obama revealed himself to be not simply the leader of the United States as president but along with Jimmy Carter one of the most articulate voices of Christianity ever to sit in the White House. A fellow pastor's little daughter listened to the President with her Dad and hearing the President she said to her dad, "When he is done being president he should be a pastor."

    President Obama celebrated the life of the Hon. Rev. Clementa Pinckney and the intersection of life and faith in the pastor's life. He spoke of the history of the AME Zion tradition and how it had a long history as a community of faith and putting faith in action dedicated to establishing a Christian community for blacks even when it was against the law for all black communities of worship, part of the underground railroad, people who worked for voting rights and the Civil Rights movement, people who gave care to the poor and the needy of the community. Costly grace put into action in the service of God.

    The message Barack Obama spoke was an incredible expression of the Christian understanding of God's grace. I have heard many a pastor bungle his or her way around an attempt to express the nature of the Gospel and the nature of grace. Some make it into something we only receive by accepting Jesus, in effect a new law to receive by which we receive God's grace. Others turn it into a meaningless wishy, washy platitude of love where everything is sweet and nice.

    The president's expression did not fall into either of those traps. He spoke about a grace that is wholly undeserved, a grace that cannot be paid for and cannot be cheated. A grace that takes us as we are and transforms us into expressions of the very gospel itself as our lives are poured out with Jesus' risking and living for others. Lives risked by grace on the bridge at Montgomery, AL, lives risked in voting rights campaigns to expand democracy to all, lives risked in churches burned, destroyed and rebuilt when when hate comes knocking at the door. Grace is costly, horribly, terrifyingly costly.

    Dietrich Bonhoeffer confronted the reality of the cost of grace in Germany in World War 2 when as part of the Confessing Church movement he and others acted in opposition to the Nazi rule. They spoke out when evil befell the Jews and the other minority groups were labeled as outcasts and unclean. He, repentingly, participated in a plot to kill Hitler and all the while believing that taking life was wrong but that more life would be saved through such action. Bonhoeffer insisted that the Gospel was grace because it gave to us our very lives delivered from sin and with absolute freedom and knew it was costly because never again would he be able to ignore the plight of his neighbor and their need in the face of destructive oppression. Of grace he wrote, "Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession...Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate." Bonhoeffer was executed by hanging in Flossenburg just before the camp was liberated by the Allies.

    President Obama understands grace and how vulnerable and how powerful we become when we truly give ourselves over to living by the grace of God's love. He reminded us of the grace these nine people in Charleston found in welcoming a stranger into their midst. A stranger they welcomed so openly that it almost stopped him from the path of destruction he was pursuing. And when he didn't turn away the nine each stayed there with him praying for him and each other.

    God now uses the example of the of the nine in Charleston and the power of the Gospel proclaimed by our fellow Christian, Barack Obama, to pull us forward towards the possibility of a better world. It will be costly to achieve and more suffering no doubt lies along the way but by God's grace it will be ours.

Clementa Pinckney found that grace.

Cynthia Hurd found that grace.

Susie Jackson found that grace.

Ethel Lance found that grace.

DePayne Middleton Doctor found that grace.

Tywanza Sanders found that grace.

Daniel Simmons, Sr. found that grace.

Sheronda Coleman-Singleton found that grace.

Myra Thompson found that grace.

Barack Obama has found that grace and "Dang, that man can preach. "

May we always have that grace.


P.S. On the ELCA clergy page dozens of us were moved in the same way by the beautiful, gracious and amazing job the president did and many agreed with a child  if  he wants it Barack Obama could have a heck of a career as a preacher.











]]>Sat, 27 Jun 2015 13:57:37 GMThttp://brokensaintsandhealingsinners.com/broken-saints-blog/and-the-curtain-of-the-temple-was-tornGracious God, abide with your people. We struggle to pursue justice for all you children. We move in fits with starts and stops. We become isolated from one another and hide in fear. Make us bold in the Spirit, breathe on us the power of your breath granting us life in your kingdom and the power of your grace. Amen.

    Wow, what an incredible day June 26th, 2015 was. Just wow!

    On the day of the crucifixion as Jesus died on the cross it is noted in the gospels that the earth shook and the curtain in the Temple was torn from top to bottom. The point of the story is that what happened that day on Golgotha changed everything. There was no going back.

    As the Supreme Court opened in the morning thousands upon thousands of Americans gained the right to have access to the public office of marriage.  This is the second great civil rights event in my lifetime. Wow. 

   In a country where interracial marriage was once against the law in my lifetime as of 6/26 marriage is now recognized as a Constitutional Right for all couples in the United States regardless of race or gender. Wow!

    In this struggle there has been copious amounts of sin to go around. Hate speech and lies have been promoted by politicians and pastors often on each side of the issue. There has been ample evidence of broken saints. My own intolerance is exposed in that I am really tiring of the bellicose blatherings of Justice Scalia every time a decision doesn't go his way.

    Let us not be foolish, however. The real struggle is not over, backlash is to be expected. In fact, the diatribe against the court decision is just starting to ramp up. Sour grapes do not make for good wine.

    For gay couples the struggle to deal with the reality of married life is just beginning. Marriage may indeed be a sacred institution but it is lived out in the brokenness of the flesh by real human beings. There will be great joys and great disappointments. There will be joyous unions and anguished dissolutions. With the possibility of marriage comes the probability of divorce for some.  Humans are the same, gay or straight. Sin is a reality in every relationship involving people. The scrutiny on gays and their marriages will be tremendous. There will be those waiting for them to fail to shout from the roof tops, "I told you so!"

    I encourage my brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ to throw open our doors and arms to all our brothers and sisters in Christ who will need the community of faith and the grace of Christ in their lives as much as any of us. They need to know they are welcome. They like every couple in every age need to know the power and the benefit of community as support for every marriage. They need to hear, receive and practice forgiveness in Word and sacrament in their lives regularly because without grace life is just too hard and the way too rough.

    Jesus never said a single word about homosexuality.  All of scripture says very little and what is often thought to be words against homosexuality are frequently misunderstood and misapplied.  As broken saints, straight and gay, we need to repent and focus on God's grace. Grace born out in the struggle of faith to love our neighbor, all of our neighbors. Grace visible in risking and learning to trust. We need to move from being broken saints to healing sinners transformed by God's grace into the one Body of Christ. We must stand with arms wide open to all because we need each other and this world today needs to see people reach out across the dark valleys of fear and animosity building a bridge to the future and to strengthen every child in God's family.

    Read the words of Justice Kennedy.
   
    "No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right. The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed."

    Those are words anchored in grace; words of hope and promise.

    Whether you are for or against the decision on 6/26. I invite you to join us at Messiah Lutheran in Mifflintown, PA we all need God's grace

    Peace be with you.

Monday, 6/26 part 2, Dang, that Guy Can Preach.

















]]>Fri, 26 Jun 2015 22:11:18 GMThttp://brokensaintsandhealingsinners.com/broken-saints-blog/eulogy-in-charleston-by-president-barack-obama-6262015This is the powerful theology of grace proclaimed most articulately by President Barack Obama and transcript published by The Washington Post.

"President Obama delivered the following eulogy at the funeral of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney at the College of Charleston’s campus."

PRESIDENT OBAMA:

"Giving all praise and honor to God.

 The Bible calls us to hope, to persevere and have faith in things not seen. They were still living by faith when they died, the scripture tells us.

They did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.

We are here today to remember a man of God who lived by faith, a man who believed in things not seen, a man who believed there were better days ahead off in the distance, a man of service, who persevered knowing full-well he would not receive all those things he was promised, because he believed his efforts would deliver a better life for those who followed, to Jennifer, his beloved wife, Eliana and Malana, his beautiful, wonderful daughters, to the Mother Emanuel family and the people of Charleston, the people of South Carolina.

I cannot claim to have had the good fortune to know Reverend Pinckney well, but I did have the pleasure of knowing him and meeting him here in South Carolina back when we were both a little bit younger… (LAUGHTER)

… back when I didn’t have visible gray hair. (LAUGHTER)

The first thing I noticed was his graciousness, his smile, his reassuring baritone, his deceptive sense of humor, all qualities that helped him wear so effortlessly a heavy burden of expectation.

Friends of his remarked this week that when Clementa Pinckney entered a room, it was like the future arrived, that even from a young age, folks knew he was special, anointed. He was the progeny of a long line of the faithful, a family of preachers who spread God’s words, a family of protesters who so changed to expand voting rights and desegregate the South.

Clem heard their instruction, and he did not forsake their teaching. He was in the pulpit by 13, pastor by 18, public servant by 23. He did not exhibit any of the cockiness of youth nor youth’s insecurities. Instead, he set an example worthy of his position, wise beyond his years in his speech, in his conduct, in his love, faith and purity.

As a senator, he represented a sprawling swathe of low country, a place that has long been one of the most neglected in America, a place still racked by poverty and inadequate schools, a place where children can still go hungry and the sick can go without treatment — a place that needed somebody like Clem.

His position in the minority party meant the odds of winning more resources for his constituents were often long. His calls for greater equity were too-often unheeded. The votes he cast were sometimes lonely.

But he never gave up. He stayed true to his convictions. He would not grow discouraged. After a full day at the Capitol, he’d climb into his car and head to the church to draw sustenance from his family, from his ministry, from the community that loved and needed him. There, he would fortify his faith and imagine what might be.

Reverend Pinckney embodied a politics that was neither mean nor small. He conducted himself quietly and kindly and diligently. He encouraged progress not by pushing his ideas alone but by seeking out your ideas, partnering with you to make things happen. He was full of empathy and fellow feeling, able to walk in somebody else’s shoes and see through their eyes.

No wonder one of his Senate colleagues remembered Senator Pinckney as “the most gentle of the 46 of us, the best of the 46 of us.”

Clem was often asked why he chose to be a pastor and a public servant. But the person who asked probably didn’t know the history of AME Church.

As our brothers and sisters in the AME Church, we don’t make those distinctions. “Our calling,” Clem once said, “is not just within the walls of the congregation but the life and community in which our congregation resides.”

He embodied the idea that our Christian faith demands deeds and not just words, that the sweet hour of prayer actually lasts the whole week long, that to put our faith in action is more than just individual salvation, it’s about our collective salvation, that to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and house the homeless is not just a call for isolated charity but the imperative of a just society.

What a good man. Sometimes I think that’s the best thing to hope for when you’re eulogized, after all the words and recitations and resumes are read, to just say somebody was a good man.

You don’t have to be of high distinction to be a good man.

Preacher by 13, pastor by 18, public servant by 23. What a life Clementa Pinckney lived. What an example he set. What a model for his faith.

And then to lose him at 41, slain in his sanctuary with eight wonderful members of his flock, each at different stages in life but bound together by a common commitment to God — Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, DePayne Middleton Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel L. Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Myra Thompson.

Good people. Decent people. God-fearing people.

People so full of life and so full of kindness, people who ran the race, who persevered, people of great faith.

To the families of the fallen, the nation shares in your grief. Our pain cuts that much deeper because it happened in a church.

The church is and always has been the center of African American life…

… a place to call our own in a too-often hostile world, a sanctuary from so many hardships.

Over the course of centuries, black churches served as hush harbors, where slaves could worship in safety, praise houses, where their free descendants could gather and shout “Hallelujah…”

… rest stops for the weary along the Underground Railroad, bunkers for the foot soldiers of the civil-rights movement.

They have been and continue to community centers, where we organize for jobs and justice, places of scholarship and network, places where children are loved and fed and kept out of harms way and told that they are beautiful and smart and taught that they matter.

That’s what happens in church. That’s what the black church means — our beating heart, the place where our dignity as a people in inviolate.

There’s no better example of this tradition than Mother Emanuel, a church…

… a church built by blacks seeking liberty, burned to the ground because its founders sought to end slavery only to rise up again, a phoenix from these ashes.

When there were laws banning all-black church gatherers, services happened here anyway in defiance of unjust laws. When there was a righteous movement to dismantle Jim Crow, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached from its pulpit, and marches began from its steps.

A sacred place, this church, not just for blacks, not just for Christians but for every American who cares about the steady expansion…

… of human rights and human dignity in this country, a foundation stone for liberty and justice for all.

That’s what the church meant.

We do not know whether the killer of Reverend Pinckney and eight others knew all of this history, but he surely sensed the meaning of his violent act. It was an act that drew on a long history of bombs and arson and shots fired at churches, not random but as a means of control, a way to terrorize and oppress…

… an act that he imagined would incite fear and recrimination, violence and suspicion, an act that he presumed would deepen divisions that trace back to our nation’s original sin.

Oh, but God works in mysterious ways.

God has different ideas.

He didn’t know he was being used by God.

Blinded by hatred, the alleged killer would not see the grace surrounding Reverend Pinckney and that Bible study group, the light of love that shown as they opened the church doors and invited a stranger to join in their prayer circle.

The alleged killer could have never anticipated the way the families of the fallen would respond when they saw him in court in the midst of unspeakable grief, with words of forgiveness. He couldn’t imagine that.

The alleged killer could not imagine how the city of Charleston under the good and wise leadership of Mayor Riley, how the state of South Carolina, how the United States of America would respond not merely with revulsion at his evil acts, but with (inaudible) generosity. And more importantly, with a thoughtful introspection and self-examination that we so rarely see in public life. Blinded by hatred, he failed to comprehend what Reverend Pinckney so well understood — the power of God’s grace.

This whole week, I’ve been reflecting on this idea of grace.

The grace of the families who lost loved ones; the grace that Reverend Pinckney would preach about in his sermons; the grace described in one of my favorite hymnals, the one we all know — Amazing Grace.

How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.

According to the Christian tradition, grace is not earned. Grace is not merited. It’s not something we deserve. Rather, grace is the free and benevolent favor of God.

As manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings. Grace — as a nation out of this terrible tragedy, God has visited grace upon us for he has allowed us to see where we’ve been blind.

He’s given us the chance where we’ve been lost to find out best selves. We may not have earned this grace with our rancor and complacency and short-sightedness and fear of each other, but we got it all the same. He gave it to us anyway. He’s once more given us grace.

But it is up to us now to make the most of it, to receive it with gratitude and to prove ourselves worthy of this gift.

For too long, we were blind to the pain that the Confederate Flag stirred into many of our citizens.

It’s true a flag did not cause these murders. But as people from all walks of life, Republicans and Democrats, now acknowledge, including Governor Haley, whose recent eloquence on the subject is worthy of praise…

… as we all have to acknowledge, the flag has always represented more than just ancestral pride.

For many, black and white, that flag was a reminder of systemic oppression…

… and racial subjugation.

We see that now.

Removing the flag from this state’s capital would not be an act of political correctness. It would not an insult to the valor of Confederate soldiers. It would simply be acknowledgement that the cause for which they fought, the cause of slavery, was wrong.

The imposition of Jim Crow after the Civil War, the resistance to civil rights for all people was wrong.

It would be one step in an honest accounting of America’s history, a modest but meaningful balm for so many unhealed wounds.

It would be an expression of the amazing changes that have transformed this state and this country for the better because of the work of so many people of goodwill, people of all races, striving to form a more perfect union.

By taking down that flag, we express adds grace God’s grace.

But I don’t think God wants us to stop there.

For too long, we’ve been blind to be way past injustices continue to shape the present.

Perhaps we see that now. Perhaps this tragedy causes us to ask some tough questions about how we can permit so many of our children to languish in poverty…

… or attend dilapidated schools or grow up without prospects for a job or for a career.

Perhaps it causes us to examine what we’re doing to cause some of our children to hate.

Perhaps it softens hearts towards those lost young men, tens and tens of thousands caught up in the criminal-justice system and lead us to make sure that that system’s not infected with bias.

… that we embrace changes in how we train and equip our police so that the bonds of trust between law enforcement…

… and the communities they serve make us all safer and more secure.

Maybe we now realize the way a racial bias can infect us even when we don’t realize it so that we’re guarding against not just racial slurs but we’re also guarding against the subtle impulse to call Johnny back for a job interview but not Jamal…

… so that we search our hearts when we consider laws to make it harder for some of our fellow citizens to vote…

… by recognizing our common humanity, by treating every child as important, regardless of the color of their skin…

… or the station into which they were born and to do what’s necessary to make opportunity real for every American. By doing that, we express God’s grace.

For too long…

For too long, we’ve been blind to the unique mayhem that gun violence inflicts upon this nation.

Sporadically, our eyes are open when eight of our brothers and sisters are cut down in a church basement, 12 in a movie theater, 26 in an elementary school. But I hope we also see the 30 precious lives cut short by gun violence in this country every single day…

… the countless more whose lives are forever changed, the survivors crippled, the children traumatized and fearful every day as they walk to school, the husband who will never feel his wife’s warm touch, the entire communities whose grief overflows every time they have to watch what happened to them happening to some other place.

The vast majority of Americans, the majority of gun owners want to do something about this. We see that now.

And I’m convinced that by acknowledging the pain and loss of others, even as we respect the traditions, ways of life that make up this beloved country, by making the moral choice to change, we express God’s grace.

We don’t earn grace. We’re all sinners. We don’t deserve it.

But God gives it to us anyway.

And we choose how to receive it. It’s our decision how to honor it.

None of us can or should expect a transformation in race relations overnight. Every time something like this happens, somebody says, “We have to have a conversation about race.” We talk a lot about race.

There’s no shortcut. We don’t need more talk.

None of us should believe that a handful of gun safety measures will prevent every tragedy.

It will not. People of good will will continue to debate the merits of various policies as our democracy requires — the big, raucous place, America is. And there are good people on both sides of these debates.

Whatever solutions we find will necessarily be incomplete. But it would be a betrayal of everything Reverend Pinckney stood for, I believe, if we allow ourselves to slip into a comfortable silence again.

Once the eulogies have been delivered, once the TV cameras move on, to go back to business as usual. That’s what we so often do to avoid uncomfortable truths about the prejudice that still infects our society.

To settle for symbolic gestures without following up with the hard work of more lasting change, that’s how we lose our way again. It would be a refutation of the forgiveness expressed by those families if we merely slipped into old habits whereby those who disagree with us are not merely wrong, but bad; where we shout instead of listen; where we barricade ourselves behind preconceived notions or well-practiced cynicism.

Reverend Pinckney once said, “Across the south, we have a deep appreciation of history. We haven’t always had a deep appreciation of each other’s history.”

What is true in the south is true for America. Clem understood that justice grows out of recognition of ourselves in each other; that my liberty depends on you being free, too.

That — that history can’t be a sword to justify injustice or a shield against progress. It must be a manual for how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, how to break the cycle, a roadway toward a better world. He knew that the path of grace involves an open mind. But more importantly, an open heart.

That’s what I felt this week — an open heart. That more than any particular policy or analysis is what’s called upon right now, I think. It’s what a friend of mine, the writer Marilyn Robinson, calls “that reservoir of goodness beyond and of another kind, that we are able to do each other in the ordinary cause of things.”

That reservoir of goodness. If we can find that grace, anything is possible.


If we can tap that grace, everything can change. Amazing grace, amazing grace.

Amazing grace…

… how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind, but now, I see.

Clementa Pinckney found that grace…

… Cynthia Hurd found that grace…

… Susie Jackson found that grace…

… Ethel Lance found that grace…

… DePayne Middleton Doctor found that grace…

… Tywanza Sanders found that grace…

… Daniel L. Simmons, Sr. found that grace…

… Sharonda Coleman-Singleton found that grace…

… Myra Thompson found that grace…

… through the example of their lives. They’ve now passed it onto us. May we find ourselves worthy of that precious and extraordinary gift as long as our lives endure.

May grace now lead them home. May God continue to shed His Grace on the United States of America."

]]>Wed, 24 Jun 2015 14:20:54 GMThttp://brokensaintsandhealingsinners.com/broken-saints-blog/in-the-world-not-of-itEternal Lord who calls us to be in the world but not of it, teach us always your ways and guide us in proper stewardship of all that you have created, open our hearts to the pain and suffering of our brothers and sisters around us, and grant us your Spirit that we can be ever faithful to you. Amen.

      Recently some politicians have decried statements of the Pope Francis suggesting that he should tend to things spiritual and leave things political alone. Such suggestions were rarely heard when past popes had addressed topics, such as, abortion which were often exploited by some for political leverage. But behind the idea that the Pope should keep silent or should speak only to certain subjects is the issue of the intersection of faith and life.

      I am not sure how one separates faith and life in the  way suggested above. We teach that from the moment we are baptized God is to be the central reality in our life, "Love God above all things," and that we have been freed from sin and death to be a new creation in the Body of Christ. Christ’s whole ministry was spent impacting the everyday reality of people’s lives. He fed people, he healed people, and he taught people. He taught the disciples and others about the practical realities of sin and grace, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone," and how to live their lives as caretakers of the least of these (Matthew 25).

      Each Sunday in the creed we confess together that God is the creator of all. In Genesis we learn that as creator God has given us a tremendous responsibility as stewards of that creation. Such stewardship means a responsibility to care for, protecting and nurturing, this planet rather than exploiting and abusing it.

      We confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior speaking of God incarnate and present to us in the midst of history. Jesus calls us to love God and neighbor showing us how by loving we are to set aside self interest for the good of all. Jesus shows us this in the power of the cross and how accepting the limits of life daily and the contrasting abundance of life with God sets us free to pour out our lives for others. Today Christ is in the midst history every time a believer risks laying down his or her life for someone.
   
    The nine members of of Mother Emanuel AME Zion in Charleston ministered to their killer for an hour reading scripture and praying with him and continued to do so as he then began to shoot them one by one reloading as many as five times. Now God seems to be working something new in Christ as politicians and public are moved to reject the symbols of hate that had surrounded Dylann Roof and warped him into a tool of destruction. As with the cross of Jesus God still brings life from death.

      And we confess the Holy Spirit and all the ways through which God continues to support and nurture us. In the Holy Spirit God is continually reforming our lives by grace through faith, through the support of the community of faith, through the sacraments and promise of forgiveness, and a promise that the end of this life is not the end of our relationship with God.

      What the Pope sees and understands is that for the believer true faith touches every aspect of life. To be the Body of Christ requires us to be in the midst of the world with all of its turmoil and struggle.  There is no way for faith not to impact politics because faith impacts life. It shapes how we interact with our world as creation, it opens our eyes to see the suffering and the needs of those around us, and it calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies and keeps us in love with God and our neighbor.

      If one’s faith is not impacting the choices one makes and the way in which one lives life why would one bother with attempting to claim the label, “Christian.” Just calling oneself a Christian means very little. Following Christ and living out our baptismal calling is what it means to be Christian. To be a Christian is to be continually reformed, “imago dei,” in the image of God. It is to be Christ today. Being a Christian has consequences, it is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called, “costly grace.”











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