Another sampling from "Worship, Evangelism, and Ethics-On Eliminating the And"…
"The way the church 'wins converts,' therefore, is by making us faithful worshipers of the God who alone is worthy of worship….Such a people are bound to attract followers, because the God who has called them from the nations is so beautifully compelling."
If this sounds like a jab at megachurches that become consumed by growing in size, it is. There is something deeply disturbing when "evangelism" devolves into the endless quest to pack more people in the pews to have a 'meaningful' experience. But don't hear that criticism as a case of sour grapes from a declining denomination. It's not about jealousy because other churches are bigger than ours. Rather, the concern is about a vision that has settled for something too small. When increasing the numbers of our ranks becomes an end in itself, we lose the power of God's promise that we are loved just as we are and instead get caught up in keeping up with the church of the Joneses. When evangelism becomes marketing, we soon discover that we've traded the precious-but free!-gifts of God for a sales pitch. Grace is replaced with gimmick, and the love of the community becomes lost in saccharine "niceness" and shallow talk of "meaningfulness." We become convinced that faith is a product to be pushed and that God will lose face-or worse, we think, our congregation will lose face-unless numbers are up and people leave the service entertained.
What if it didn't have to be that way? What if we were not bent on being God's top sellers and instead could let ourselves simply offer thanks to the God who has gathered us? The preposterous word of faith (and it is preposterous in a world where everything has become a product) is that it doesn't have to be "that way" and we are not responsible for selling salvation. We do not need to settle for the lesser gods of popularity and prestige. We do not need to settle for anything less than communion with the God who has made and redeemed us. That God is the real focus and center of the gathered church. When we can let go of selling idols, we cannot help but be drawn deeper in love with the God who is "so beautifully compelling." And when we give up on meeting quotas, we cannot help but draw others around us into the same compelling love. That is all evangelism ever is.
Connection: We do not have to settle for anything less than the living God revealed in Jesus Christ as the center of our identity and our worship.
Gracious God, open our eyes to the beauty of who you are, and hold that vision ever before us in the face of all this day brings.
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Monday, June 20, 2005
In case you have been reading the daily devotions regularly and are confused at why we’ve abruptly stopped in the middle of 1 Corinthians, here’s a word of explanation. While Pastor Al is on vacation, Vicar Steve is doing devotions for this week. But the good pastor will be back for the final week of June, and then you will be returned to your regularly scheduled programming, er, devotions.
Our devotions this week are drawn from an essay in Stanley Hauerwas' book, A Better Hope, entitled, "Worship, Evangelism, and Ethics-On Eliminating the 'And'." If the title seems intimidating, just know that the central theme is about how the gospel story shapes us and makes us into a new people-and that newness radiates forth in all of our lives. It really is good material (at least Hauerwas' part is!), so I invite you to try it on for size.*
"Worship is evangelism and ethics…worship is about the shaping of affections."
So much of life-as-we-know-it is disjointed and fragmented. Our culture seems intent on splitting up the world around us into compartments and keeping them hermetically sealed off from one another. Think about it-in the political arena, faith is often either kept private and completely out of decent public conversation or gets hijacked to divide the world into us-and-them, with-us-or-against-us teams. We are trained to keep our job "hat" and identity neatly separated from our family "hat"-you can be who you are on your own time, but don't let it get in the way of productivity or closing a sale. What we say on Sundays has no connection to how we think and act on the rest of the days. Even in the church, we often break up the ministry and mission of congregations into separate chunks called committees that may not interact at all-something is the job of the Church-in-Society Committee or the Evangelism Committee or the Worship Committee alone, but they don't work together. And as a result, we are split down the middle-we become fragmented people.
In the midst of all of our disconnected selves and disjointed commitments, the gospel of Jesus Christ brings real oneness. That's what I love about the subtitle of this whole essay by Hauerwas: Eliminating the "And." In a society that would split us up into disconnected fragments-between our Sunday selves and work-week lives, between our inner feelings and the forced smiles that sell, between private and public personas-Jesus offers us a vision of being whole. We are not compartmentalized, but have been claimed completely, wholly, by God. And so all of our lives are liberated for something new-not just our Sundays, and not just our inner thoughts. The Hebrew word for that wholeness of self and community is shalom, and that is precisely what Jesus offers.
Connection: In Christ, there is no longer a "work hat" or a "family hat" or a "private hat" or a "public hat" to wear at the right times-only the "beloved of God" hat, and that is enough.
O God who gives shalom, who else can pick up our many pieces? We long to be one today-come and make us whole and wholly yours.
Our devotions this week are drawn from an essay in Stanley Hauerwas' book, A Better Hope, entitled, "Worship, Evangelism, and Ethics-On Eliminating the 'And'." If the title seems intimidating, just know that the central theme is about how the gospel story shapes us and makes us into a new people-and that newness radiates forth in all of our lives. It really is good material (at least Hauerwas' part is!), so I invite you to try it on for size.*
"Worship is evangelism and ethics…worship is about the shaping of affections."
So much of life-as-we-know-it is disjointed and fragmented. Our culture seems intent on splitting up the world around us into compartments and keeping them hermetically sealed off from one another. Think about it-in the political arena, faith is often either kept private and completely out of decent public conversation or gets hijacked to divide the world into us-and-them, with-us-or-against-us teams. We are trained to keep our job "hat" and identity neatly separated from our family "hat"-you can be who you are on your own time, but don't let it get in the way of productivity or closing a sale. What we say on Sundays has no connection to how we think and act on the rest of the days. Even in the church, we often break up the ministry and mission of congregations into separate chunks called committees that may not interact at all-something is the job of the Church-in-Society Committee or the Evangelism Committee or the Worship Committee alone, but they don't work together. And as a result, we are split down the middle-we become fragmented people.
In the midst of all of our disconnected selves and disjointed commitments, the gospel of Jesus Christ brings real oneness. That's what I love about the subtitle of this whole essay by Hauerwas: Eliminating the "And." In a society that would split us up into disconnected fragments-between our Sunday selves and work-week lives, between our inner feelings and the forced smiles that sell, between private and public personas-Jesus offers us a vision of being whole. We are not compartmentalized, but have been claimed completely, wholly, by God. And so all of our lives are liberated for something new-not just our Sundays, and not just our inner thoughts. The Hebrew word for that wholeness of self and community is shalom, and that is precisely what Jesus offers.
Connection: In Christ, there is no longer a "work hat" or a "family hat" or a "private hat" or a "public hat" to wear at the right times-only the "beloved of God" hat, and that is enough.
O God who gives shalom, who else can pick up our many pieces? We long to be one today-come and make us whole and wholly yours.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
17 June 2005
This was accidentally sent out on Tuesday afternoon.
We will end this week with an interesting piece from 1 Corinthians 6.
Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolators, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers - none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:9-11)
If you are looking for the Reign of God (how I like to say "kingdom of God) as something down the road...merely as an after life arriving place, I think we miss the majesty of this passage. It can sound like people will be kept out - someone will be looking through a peep-hole and decide if we are good enough to "get in" - or...there is a great check list that we must abide by in order to be let in to this gracious Reign. But now...what if the Reign of God is a life - an available life that is quite contrary to the brokenness that is listed in this passage? The Reigning of God is a life that some will unfortunately refuse to enter NOW. Instead, for example, rather than treat spouses with love and honor and fidelity and experience the fascination and grace of that kind of a relationship, you can go off and be an adulterer...but oh what you will miss. You will miss the beauty and majesty of life within the Reign of God. We could go through this whole list and help one another see what we would miss in life when the Good News of the Reign of God is not seen as a real entity of the living of these days. Thieves have to run their whole life and can never be a peace. Those who share and give their wealth away for the welfare of the whole community already live within a peace that is beyond the world's understanding.
Connection: We have been washed and called a holy people who have the freedom to enter the life within the Reign of God and invite others to join us. Yes, that will involve a life that will clash, in many ways, with the life of the world around us. But it is always to be a blessed adventure.
Take us Merciful God and shape the day at hand into the living presence of our Lord, Jesus, so that we may see how your Reign really does come down upon us each and every day. Amen.
We will end this week with an interesting piece from 1 Corinthians 6.
Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolators, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers - none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:9-11)
If you are looking for the Reign of God (how I like to say "kingdom of God) as something down the road...merely as an after life arriving place, I think we miss the majesty of this passage. It can sound like people will be kept out - someone will be looking through a peep-hole and decide if we are good enough to "get in" - or...there is a great check list that we must abide by in order to be let in to this gracious Reign. But now...what if the Reign of God is a life - an available life that is quite contrary to the brokenness that is listed in this passage? The Reigning of God is a life that some will unfortunately refuse to enter NOW. Instead, for example, rather than treat spouses with love and honor and fidelity and experience the fascination and grace of that kind of a relationship, you can go off and be an adulterer...but oh what you will miss. You will miss the beauty and majesty of life within the Reign of God. We could go through this whole list and help one another see what we would miss in life when the Good News of the Reign of God is not seen as a real entity of the living of these days. Thieves have to run their whole life and can never be a peace. Those who share and give their wealth away for the welfare of the whole community already live within a peace that is beyond the world's understanding.
Connection: We have been washed and called a holy people who have the freedom to enter the life within the Reign of God and invite others to join us. Yes, that will involve a life that will clash, in many ways, with the life of the world around us. But it is always to be a blessed adventure.
Take us Merciful God and shape the day at hand into the living presence of our Lord, Jesus, so that we may see how your Reign really does come down upon us each and every day. Amen.
16 June 2005
We continue with 1 Corinthians 6
In fact, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud - and believers at that. (1 Cor. 6:7-8)
So what is the difference between those in the Church and others? Is there no difference? Well, if we see our life within Christ as a life that is to come...after death...at another time...then, of course, we will live just like the world. Also, if our trust in Jesus - our faith - is seen as being a individual experience, we may quickly lose any need for the corporate life - except for what it can keep telling me about what will happen to me. When we look just like the rest of the world...what is the saving power that is granted to us...where is the saving life into which we are pulled and into which we invite others?!?
Connection: Without thinking in terms of lives bound up by an endless list of things to "do" and "not do", what life are we blessed to enter as we call ourselves followers of Jesus?
Sometimes, Lord God, we will do whatever we will do to take hold and run our lives just as we want them to be...for us. In that journey, life can turn as ugly as the ugliness of our world. Save us for something new just as you have promised. Amen.
In fact, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud - and believers at that. (1 Cor. 6:7-8)
So what is the difference between those in the Church and others? Is there no difference? Well, if we see our life within Christ as a life that is to come...after death...at another time...then, of course, we will live just like the world. Also, if our trust in Jesus - our faith - is seen as being a individual experience, we may quickly lose any need for the corporate life - except for what it can keep telling me about what will happen to me. When we look just like the rest of the world...what is the saving power that is granted to us...where is the saving life into which we are pulled and into which we invite others?!?
Connection: Without thinking in terms of lives bound up by an endless list of things to "do" and "not do", what life are we blessed to enter as we call ourselves followers of Jesus?
Sometimes, Lord God, we will do whatever we will do to take hold and run our lives just as we want them to be...for us. In that journey, life can turn as ugly as the ugliness of our world. Save us for something new just as you have promised. Amen.
15 June 2005
Today we enter chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians.
When any of you has a grievance against another, do you dare to take it to court before the unrighteous, instead of taking it before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels - to say nothing of ordinary matters? If you have ordinary cases, then, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to decide between one believer and another, but a believer goes to court against a believer - and before unbelievers at that? (1 Cor. 6:1-6)
Some might want to write off this talk about legal action off to the notion that Paul and the folks of the infant church expected the end to be coming around the corner and therefore, the bar is set quite differently in regard to how we are to act. Remember though, that Paul is talking about what goes on among those in the body - how do we who claim Christ as Lord, live with one another as a new age people?!? If there needed to be a legal claim made against someone outside of the community, there was a place for that - the courts of Corinth. But inside the church, they are given a new life in which they have the full authority to make peace and come to terms of reconciliation and forgiveness. (I said "they" but let us read "we"). The tough language is like the language used on a child by a parent. "This is who we are...we do not do that!...and this is just how important it is." Sometimes that language can only sound like harsh threat and judgment. It is our task to listen for the foundation - the life of Christ among us - to hear how good news can bring us into an alternate life.
Connection: We must be this body of Christ. The life within this body is beyond our imagination. Maybe that is why we so often run from it and choose another life. That is also why it is so important for us to feed each other with Christ's love - that we too will be formed in that image.
Make us witnesses to your loving Reign, O God. We will not go there on our own. We long for your Spirit to plant us within a life filled with your love. Amen.
When any of you has a grievance against another, do you dare to take it to court before the unrighteous, instead of taking it before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels - to say nothing of ordinary matters? If you have ordinary cases, then, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to decide between one believer and another, but a believer goes to court against a believer - and before unbelievers at that? (1 Cor. 6:1-6)
Some might want to write off this talk about legal action off to the notion that Paul and the folks of the infant church expected the end to be coming around the corner and therefore, the bar is set quite differently in regard to how we are to act. Remember though, that Paul is talking about what goes on among those in the body - how do we who claim Christ as Lord, live with one another as a new age people?!? If there needed to be a legal claim made against someone outside of the community, there was a place for that - the courts of Corinth. But inside the church, they are given a new life in which they have the full authority to make peace and come to terms of reconciliation and forgiveness. (I said "they" but let us read "we"). The tough language is like the language used on a child by a parent. "This is who we are...we do not do that!...and this is just how important it is." Sometimes that language can only sound like harsh threat and judgment. It is our task to listen for the foundation - the life of Christ among us - to hear how good news can bring us into an alternate life.
Connection: We must be this body of Christ. The life within this body is beyond our imagination. Maybe that is why we so often run from it and choose another life. That is also why it is so important for us to feed each other with Christ's love - that we too will be formed in that image.
Make us witnesses to your loving Reign, O God. We will not go there on our own. We long for your Spirit to plant us within a life filled with your love. Amen.
14 June 2005
Here's the very end of chapter 5 in first Corinthians.
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons - not at all meaning the immoral of this world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since you would then need to go out of the world. But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy, or an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber. Do not even eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging those outside? Is it not those who are inside that you are to judge? God will judge those outside. Drive out the wicked persons from among you. (1 Cor.5:9-13)
I think it is important to find where the good new is in this passage. It sounds harsh. More than that it sounds like there is trouble within this community. The kind of trouble Paul and others would expect to see and hear out in the world...but not within the community blessed by the grace of God. It also sounds like this is about more than associating with sexually immoral person. In the middle of all this it sounds like the community that is called to be the body of Christ and a part of the messianic age is nothing more than "everyday in the world" that knows not the story of Christ and the promises within that story. It sounds as though Paul is upset that these people who say they are a part of the new age in Christ because they are in essence turning to "other gods" to find their satisfaction and meaning in life. There is a life we enter through the water of baptism and it is like the candle given to a baptismal candidate or the salt placed on their lips. We are by grace pulled into a life in which our lives will have the grace and love of God as the power that will shape us and form the patterns of our day...and be that "something new" for all to see. If we simply live like the world, we are missing out on the power for life that is available to us...a power where there is healing, reconciliation, forgiveness, trust, mercy, kindness, care of the world. It is as though Paul is trying to press - as hard as possible - the church in Corinth to enter the messianic age of wholeness that brings a life quite contrary to the world.
Connection: We do have a life to hand to our children and to share with one another. With the Christ as our center, there is to be a character about us that reflects the gift of life that is already ours. The fears and anxieties that come from turning and trusting other gods must be faced and named so that this new life in Christ might be called the Church.
Lord we are a broken people who find many ways to turn from you. By your grace pull us into a new life so that we may add seasoning to the world and be that light that brings your gracious Word to life. Amen.
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons - not at all meaning the immoral of this world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since you would then need to go out of the world. But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy, or an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber. Do not even eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging those outside? Is it not those who are inside that you are to judge? God will judge those outside. Drive out the wicked persons from among you. (1 Cor.5:9-13)
I think it is important to find where the good new is in this passage. It sounds harsh. More than that it sounds like there is trouble within this community. The kind of trouble Paul and others would expect to see and hear out in the world...but not within the community blessed by the grace of God. It also sounds like this is about more than associating with sexually immoral person. In the middle of all this it sounds like the community that is called to be the body of Christ and a part of the messianic age is nothing more than "everyday in the world" that knows not the story of Christ and the promises within that story. It sounds as though Paul is upset that these people who say they are a part of the new age in Christ because they are in essence turning to "other gods" to find their satisfaction and meaning in life. There is a life we enter through the water of baptism and it is like the candle given to a baptismal candidate or the salt placed on their lips. We are by grace pulled into a life in which our lives will have the grace and love of God as the power that will shape us and form the patterns of our day...and be that "something new" for all to see. If we simply live like the world, we are missing out on the power for life that is available to us...a power where there is healing, reconciliation, forgiveness, trust, mercy, kindness, care of the world. It is as though Paul is trying to press - as hard as possible - the church in Corinth to enter the messianic age of wholeness that brings a life quite contrary to the world.
Connection: We do have a life to hand to our children and to share with one another. With the Christ as our center, there is to be a character about us that reflects the gift of life that is already ours. The fears and anxieties that come from turning and trusting other gods must be faced and named so that this new life in Christ might be called the Church.
Lord we are a broken people who find many ways to turn from you. By your grace pull us into a new life so that we may add seasoning to the world and be that light that brings your gracious Word to life. Amen.
Sunday, June 12, 2005
13 June 2005
Let me jump to chapter five in 1 Corinthians.
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you?
For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present I have already pronounced judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. When you are assembled, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. (1 Cor. 5:1-5)
What a mess. This is the kind of story around the community that spreads like a wildfire and will never have any end. In fact, it usually keeps surfacing again and again as though the flame is meant to be some kind of eternal light - but this is not a light that serves the community. It is bad enough that there is a situation in which the community of a family has been betrayed in this action between a man and his father's wife. Add to this what such an action does to the trust and security of the whole community. It sounds as though people have this action as a concern and yet no one has the willingness to face it and deal with it by pointing out what it is doing to the whole community. Even though Paul's words sound harsh, notice that he is simple trying to bring about a new life for this man...and the community.
Connection: Silence doesn't help us. There are too many times in our life together when the choices of people must be faced and the consequences of such choices must be pressed. Otherwise, the life of the whole community is threatened in various ways.
Compassionate Lord, teach us the ways of peace and truthfulness so that as we live together, we can help to shape one another and honestly deal with the times when our actions go against the welfare of the community. Amen.
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you?
For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present I have already pronounced judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. When you are assembled, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. (1 Cor. 5:1-5)
What a mess. This is the kind of story around the community that spreads like a wildfire and will never have any end. In fact, it usually keeps surfacing again and again as though the flame is meant to be some kind of eternal light - but this is not a light that serves the community. It is bad enough that there is a situation in which the community of a family has been betrayed in this action between a man and his father's wife. Add to this what such an action does to the trust and security of the whole community. It sounds as though people have this action as a concern and yet no one has the willingness to face it and deal with it by pointing out what it is doing to the whole community. Even though Paul's words sound harsh, notice that he is simple trying to bring about a new life for this man...and the community.
Connection: Silence doesn't help us. There are too many times in our life together when the choices of people must be faced and the consequences of such choices must be pressed. Otherwise, the life of the whole community is threatened in various ways.
Compassionate Lord, teach us the ways of peace and truthfulness so that as we live together, we can help to shape one another and honestly deal with the times when our actions go against the welfare of the community. Amen.
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