Beautiful Messenger

September 11 Remembrance

2010-09-14T23:21:00.000-04:00

by Margay Whitlock
Pastor of Zion Lutheran Church, Rahway, NJ and Chaplain of the Rahway Fire Department

Delivered at the Rahway Fire Department on September 11, 2010

People often ask me what I think of the Cordoba Project –the Cultural Center being proposed near Ground Zero.

• My first thought is I wish people would get as worked up about how we as a people are taking care of our First Responders, and all those who worked on “the pile” during the aftermath. That they have had to fight to have their medical bills taken care of is a travesty. Let’s put as much energy into taking care of our own.

• The next thing that occurs to me is that we have a hard time telling the difference between mainline Islam and the religious extremists. Clearly it’s not OK if practicing your religion means you fly airplanes into buildings. But let’s face it, we all have extremists in every faith tradition. Pastor Terry Jones who had been planning to observe September 11 by burning the Qu’ran in Gainesville, Florida, has managed to generate so much hatred toward America that General Petraeus noted it was putting our troops in danger.

• The third thing that occurs to me is that speech by Martin Neimoller. He was a Pastor of the “Confessing Church” during Hitler’s rise to power.

“First they came for the Communists,” he said,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.

“Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
“Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
“Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.”

Oddly, both “sides” are using this quote. Both sides are saying it is necessary to stand up and be counted. Both the side that says “It’s too close, it’s too raw,” and the side that says, “If we deny them, we will have lost one of our basic American freedoms.” People that are not from around here don’t have the same memories that we have:

• The absolute knowledge of people in our midst who were affected.
• The smoke rising from the pile of ashes, for days, weeks, months….
• Every lamppost downtown turned into a kiosk….
• Families desperate to find their loved ones…..
• Families who fear if this project goes ahead, Al Qaeda will have “won.”

And then there are those who believe if we say no, then Al Qaeda will have really won, because if people are not allowed to practice their religion what is next?

Even in our dialogue on this issue, the danger is that we become polarized, and demonize the opposition.

On its best days, this is what the “church” can be: a community of moral deliberation -- not mowing down people with whom we disagree, but opening our hearts and minds to understanding.

A couple of scripture references come to mind, but I will share with you one from the book of Acts. One of the rabbis speaks up at a council meeting: “If this plan or this undertaking is of men, it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow it. You might even be found opposing God!” (Acts 5: 38b-39)

• I think one of the very first responses we have before us is to become more diligent in the practice our OWN religion. How can you help contribute to and strengthen your own congregation?

• I think the next thing to do is to get the facts before we jump on the bandwagon. This is harder than it looks. It turns out that the Al Farah Mosque was founded in 1981 in lower Manhattan. A building at the site of the proposed cultural center is already handling the overflow from a Mosque whose existence pre-dates that fateful day by 20 years. There is already worship going on at the site. From what I can gather, these Muslims are from the Sufi tradition –mystics, who are into dance and meditation.

• Which brings up the next thing to do: begin to realize that all Muslims are not the same, just as all Christians are not the same and all Jewish people are not the same. Every religion has fanatics on both the left and on the right. It is vital for people of good will to distance ourselves from the extremists of every stripe who would pit us against one another rather than have us work together.

This week, leaders from the Jewish, Christian and Islamic Faith traditions met together in an emergency Interfaith Summit and issued the following statement:

As religious leaders in this great country, we have come together in our nation’s capital to denounce categorically the derision, misinformation and outright bigotry being directed against America’s Muslim community. We bear a sacred responsibility to honor America’s varied faith traditions and to promote a culture of mutual respect and the assurance of religious freedom for all. In advance of the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, we announce a new era of interfaith cooperation.

As Jews, Christians, and Muslims, we are grateful to live in this democracy whose Constitution guarantees religious liberty for all. Our freedom to worship in congregations of our own choosing, to give witness to our moral convictions in the public square, and to maintain institutions that carry out our respective missions—all of these are bedrock American freedoms that must be vigorously guarded and defended lest they be placed at peril. The United States of America has been a beacon to the world in defending the rights of religious minorities, yet it is also sadly true that at times in our history particular groups have been singled out for unjust discrimination and have been made the object of scorn and animosity by those who have either misconstrued or intentionally distorted the vision of our founders.

In recent weeks, we have become alarmed by the anti-Muslim frenzy that has been generated over the plans to build an Islamic community center and mosque at the Park 51 site near Ground Zero in New York City. We recognize that the vicinity around the former World Trade Center, where 2,752 innocent lives were cruelly murdered on 9/11, remains an open wound in our country, especially for those who lost loved ones. Persons of conscience have taken different positions on the wisdom of the location of this project, even if the legal right to build on the site appears to be unassailable. Our concern here is not to debate the Park 51 project anew, but rather to respond to the atmosphere of fear and contempt for fellow Americans of the Muslim faith that the controversy has generated.

We are profoundly distressed and deeply saddened by the incidents of violence committed against Muslims in our community, and by the desecration of Islamic houses of worship. We stand by the principle that to attack any religion in the United States is to do violence to the religious freedom of all Americans. The threatened burning of copies of the Holy Qu’ran this Saturday is a particularly egregious offense that demands the strongest possible condemnation by all who value civility in public life and seek to honor the sacred memory of those who lost their lives on September 11. As religious leaders, we are appalled by such disrespect for a sacred text that for centuries has shaped many of the great cultures of our world, and that continues to give spiritual comfort to more than a billion Muslims today.

We are committed to building a future in which religious differences no longer lead to hostility or division between communities. Rather, we believe that such diversity can serve to enrich our public discourse about the great moral challenges that face our nation and our planet. On the basis of our shared reflection, we insist that no religion should be judged on the words or actions of those who seek to pervert it through acts of violence; that politicians and members of the media are never justified in exploiting religious differences as a wedge to advance political agendas or ideologies; that bearing false witness against the neighbor—something condemned by all three of our religious traditions—is inflicting particular harm on the followers of Islam, a world religion that has lately been mischaracterized by some as a “cult.”

We call for a new day in America when speaking the truth about one another will embrace a renewed commitment to mutual learning among religions. Leaders of local congregations have a special responsibility to teach with accuracy, fairness and respect about other faith traditions. The partnerships that have developed in recent years between synagogues and churches, mosques and synagogues, and churches and mosques should provide a foundation for new forms of collaboration in interfaith education, inter-congregational visitations, and service programs that redress social ills like homelessness and drug abuse. What we can accomplish together is, in very many instances, far more than we can achieve working in isolation from one another. The good results of a more extensive collaboration between religious congregations and national agencies will undoubtedly help to heal our culture, which continues to suffer from the open wound of 9/11.

We work together on the basis of deeply held and widely shared values, each supported by the sacred texts of our respective traditions. We acknowledge with gratitude the dialogues between our scholars and religious authorities that have helped us to identify a common understanding of the divine command to love one’s neighbor. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all see an intimate link between faithfulness to God and love of neighbor; a neighbor who in many instances is the stranger in our midst. We are united in our conviction that by witnessing together in celebration of human dignity and religious freedom; by working together for interfaith understanding across communities and generations; and by cooperating with each other in works of justice and mercy for the benefit of society, all of us will demonstrate our faithfulness to our deepest spiritual commitments.

We are convinced that spiritual leaders representing the various faiths in the United States have a moral responsibility to stand together and to denounce categorically derision, misinformation or outright bigotry directed against any religious group in this country. Silence is not an option. Only by taking this stand, can spiritual leaders fulfill the highest calling of our respective faiths, and thereby help to create a safer and stronger America for all of our people.

For a listing of those in attendance, please see.
http://www.isna.net/articles/News/Beyond-Park-51-Religious-Leaders-Denounce-Anti-Muslim-Bigotry-and-Call-for-Respect.aspx on the Web.

Civil Religion vs. Christianity

2010-09-04T06:49:00.002-04:00

By John Page

When I first read the book of Judges, I marveled that the Israelites kept turning to Baal in a recurring cycle of apostasy, tragedy, repentance, deliverance, and back to apostasy. It was so obvious to me what their problem was, having the benefit of a carefully edited narrative specifically designed to drive home the point. Why couldn’t they see as clearly as I could that turning to Baal had disastrous consequences? And why turn to Baal anyway?

God had rescued the Israelites from Egypt and led them to the land promised to them. For 40 years, these people had been wanderers and herders, and understood that God was responsible for protecting and providing for them during their sojourn. When they took possession of Canaan, they no longer needed to wander, and farming became necessary. But, how would wanderers and herders learn to farm? Well, by asking those who already knew the art, the indigenous Canaanites.

If we could ask a 13th century BCE Canaanite farmer for guidance in growing and harvesting crops, we would be told that the life and passions of Baal were indispensible to producing a bountiful harvest. Baal was “lord” of the land, and only by his successful victory over his nemesis and sexual union with his beloved could the land produce its bounty. This is what the newcomers, the Israelites, would have learned.

Many Israelites would not have seen a problem with worshiping both the Lord of their rescue, wandering, and military victories, and the lord of the land, Baal. The two “lords” presided over different realms, as it were, and what would be the harm in honoring each in their respective realms? In modern parlance, we might say that they “compartmentalized” God, effectively placing limits on God’s reach and claim upon their lives.

Of course, compartmentalizing God is something we’re very good at in our own generation, and recognizing this human tendency helps explain the cycle, beginning and ending with apostasy, which we observe in Judges. It also invites us to be aware and cautious as we ourselves navigate life through “realms” of our own arbitrary construction.

Civil religion presents our generation with a tempting invitation to compartmentalize God, as Baal worship did in the 13th century BCE. Once God is compartmentalized, civil religion is free to lay increasingly greater claims upon our lives, our commitments, and our conduct, until the will and purpose of the living God is supplanted by the will and purpose of the lesser god of civil religion. The god of civil religion may even be able to successfully masquerade as the living God.

So, what is civil religion? Historically, secular rulers appeal to “higher powers” to legitimize and sanctify what are otherwise personal or parochial ambitions. A mythology is constructed that links the self-interests of individuals or communities with divine purpose. Once linked, self-interest becomes divine will. Caesar worship and the mythology of Rome is an obvious example from antiquity, and it played an important part in the persecution of Jesus and the followers of Jesus’ Way.

Roman authorities correctly understood that the Way of Jesus challenged the absolute claims civil religion made upon Roman citizens and subjects. The apostolic claim that “Jesus is Lord” implies that there can be no other lords before Jesus. The apostolic claim is much more than the compartmentalizing “Jesus is lord of my life”; the apostles asserted that Jesus is Lord of all creation, to whom all other lords must be subordinate. Clearly, those other lords would not be happy about this, and persecution followed.

Despite the persecution, Christianity spread and became more popular (not so much because of the brave witness of those tortured and murdered by Roman authorities, as romanticized Hollywood films present it, but because of the risky self-sacrificing service that Christians offered to those in need, especially during pandemics that ravaged cities of antiquity). Persecuting Christians lost popular support, and Roman rulers adapted to the changing political reality. So did civil religion.

The old civil religion of the Roman pantheon gave way to a new civil religion, popularly known as Christendom, which incorporated elements of Christianity. A mythology of Christendom was constructed linking political and social ambitions with divine purpose and will. A wholly secular program of self-serving conquest and control became a holy mission. And of course, violence, injustices, neglect, and atrocities that attend such holy missions were excused and justified by citing divine will.

Christendom, like any other civil religion, is not the Way of Jesus. Jesus told his disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) Whereas civil religion pursues an entirely self-serving agenda, the Way of Jesus demands self-sacrifice for the benefit of the vulnerable and those in need. Whereas civil religion promotes the interests of a distinct community at the expense of others when necessary or expedient, the Way of Jesus regards all of humankind as God’s own and expects self-sacrificing love for friend and enemy alike. Whereas Christendom glorifies war, might, and conquest in pursuit of self-interest masquerading as holy mission, the Way of Jesus glorifies peace makers willing to sacrifice themselves and their own self-interests for the sake of Christ, the Lord.

Christendom is all around us in the United States. Scan news headlines over the past few weeks and consider the role that Christendom and its self-serving mythology play in the angry and hateful words and conduct surrounding discourse over the Islamic Center in lower Manhattan, over the persons and intentions of our elected leaders, and over aliens living among us. What “god” is being worshipped in all this? Where is the Way of Jesus in this? How has Jesus’ lordship been compartmentalized and constrained, even among those claiming to be Christian?

God Is My Source of Love And Strength

2010-08-27T06:44:00.000-04:00

By Luann Albanese

There are times when my mind wanders away from my passions and spiritual journey and I ask God to pull me back and show me where He wants me to be and to use me for His purpose. There are so many needs and suffering in the world around me and within the lives of people that I love most in the world. Most times, I ask myself, where do I begin and what if I fail trying? It is during these times I realize how important support and encouragement means in our lives. I have learned and I am stilling learning to trust that God is the only source of my strength. When God’s support and encouragement comes to me, it comes in the feeling that I can do anything I put my mind to. I feel stronger when I focus on God walking and working right along with me.

Since I am human, there are times, even knowing that God is walking and working with me in which I find myself in need of support and encouragement from people who are closest to me on earth. Although friends and loved ones, church family, etc. are a good source of support and encouragement, they are all human, and are not always capable of recognizing the needs of their brothers and sisters in Christ. I think this is because sometimes people just get caught up in the politics of the church and the differences of opinions of those whom they do not agree. I think everyone, including me is guilty of this at one time or another. For me, the closer I feel to God, the less all of that means to me. I understand that People become distracted with these things instead of focusing on what we are really put on this earth for and that is to love and care for one another, support and encourage one another in all that we do. This is what I pray for. I have sought it out and have found it in one way or another, but there are those times when I have felt alone and let down in. Then of course, I allow the feelings of discouragement to set in and then the world gets to me. It is the enemy then, who feeds on it and comes after me full force trying to break down my shield and steal my joy. But thanks to God’s Saving Grace, it isn’t long before the Holy Spirit intervenes and saves me from myself once again reminding me that I can rest my mind and my heart as God loves me and is always with me. Yes, one way or another, through a kind word from a friend, something I may hear in a sermon, at bible study, a hymn, or a dream somehow the Holy Spirit shakes me up and gets me back on track.

I want to serve God where He wants me to serve and where I am needed. That is my goal and my priority in life which is why I spend the majority of my time within and beyond the church and with those who are in need of my support and encouragement and even simply spending time working closely with his creation in gardens. I am still learning that the only way for me to achieve this goal is to continually pray for God to be with me in all I do in His name, to protect me from being led astray. It took me a very long time to understand who I am in God’s heart. I know He loves me and I trust Him to keep my spirit safe.

Thank you God, for sending me your Holy Spirit to guide me and put me back on track when I fall off. Help me to be strong in my faith and to rely on you for strength when my journey becomes challenging.
I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Jesus Is My Life’s Gardener

2010-05-17T12:51:00.003-04:00

By Luann Albanese

I used to feel intimidated about tending to plants and flowers, but a friend of mine gave me all sorts of information and websites to read on plants and flowers.

Last year I planted several perennials and was unsure of what would become of them after I cut them back and pruned them. Well, to my surprise, they came back bigger and more beautiful than the year before. Watching them slowly peeking through the soil these past couple of month has been a joy for me. I will love and nurture them with water and fresh soil, removing weeds to give them room to breathe and grow. This made me think of us humans and Jesus being our gardener. When we are feeling lost, sad or dead inside, Jesus comes to us, as imperfect as we are, and nurtures us with his Love and Grace and we are alive again through Him.

Report from the 23rd Annual Assembly of the New Jersey Synod (ELCA) May 7-8, 2010

2010-05-14T17:20:00.002-04:00

By John Page

Zion, Rahway sent three voting members to the Synod Assembly this year: Pr. Whitlock, Anita Waldron, and John Page. The Assembly met at the Brunswick Hilton in East Brunswick, with business sessions from 9:30am to 9:30pm on Friday (May 7) and from 8:15am to noon on Saturday (May 8).

Meetings of the Assembly typically include worship and music; presentation of reports; debates over resolutions brought by individuals and congregations of this synod; greetings, and sometimes requests for action, from Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson or his personal representative; elections to various offices in the Church; topical hearings on current events or initiatives of the Church; sharing a common meal together with a special guest speaker; and by God’s grace, a celebratory reception of new congregations to this synod. In what follows, I’ll only touch on a few of the many events and reports that made an impression on me, but the full collection of reports delivered to the Assembly may be viewed/downloaded at the Synod website.

This year, the two-man band Dakota Road – the people who brought us the Kyrie we’ve been singing during Lent and Easter – led us in song throughout the Assembly. As we know from their Kyrie in ELW setting 8 of Holy Communion, their music is contemporary and accessible to singers of any skill or experience. Their lyrics are firmly rooted in the Lutheran understanding of God’s love and grace, and in the ELCA’s particular understanding of the consequences of God’s love and grace – our call to be faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted to our care, and to be reconciled with one another as sisters and brothers in Christ, loving and serving all of our neighbors in their needs with the same self-sacrificing love that Christ modeled for us.

Bishop Riley’s report focused on the topic of the “identity” of our Church in the midst of change and uncertainty. He referenced Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s poem Who Am I?, written in the midst of the martyr’s own struggle with identity under adverse and deadly circumstances. Just as Bonhoeffer concluded, so too Bishop Riley called us to acknowledge that our identity is always rooted in God’s claim upon our lives. God’s claim establishes who we are, and we share a common identity with all whom God has called by name in every generation and in every place. We articulate our identity by confessing our faith in the Triune God, in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and in the Gospel as the power of God for the salvation of all who believe; by affirming that we receive the Word of God in the person of Jesus Christ (the Word incarnate), in the proclamation of God’s message as both Law and Gospel, and in the written witness of that message in the inspired Scriptures, which provide the authoritative source and norm for this Church’s proclamation, faith, and common life. We profess the faith of the ancient church, recorded in the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian creeds, and we embody our faith when we gather around Word and Sacrament for worship and nurture, to be empowered, equipped, and sent for service to this broken world.

Knowing our identity has practical consequences. We are uniquely gifted for ecumenical fellowship with diverse Christian traditions, embracing in fellowship and full communion sisters and brothers from the Anglican, Reformed, Methodist, and Moravian traditions, and earnestly pursuing dialogue and deeper understanding with Christians in the Roman and Orthodox traditions. We are committed to ministry with children and youth; to public witness as a worshipping community and as advocates for justice and peace; to theological reflection, discernment, and education; and to the Christian vocations of every baptized member of the body of Christ.

As a Synod, we continue to support mission initiatives throughout our state: Pilgrim Journey in Elizabeth (Portuguese/English-speaking outreach); Santa Isabel in Elizabeth (Spanish-speaking outreach); Nava Jeevan in Kendall Park (Tamil/English outreach); Waterfront in Jersey City (outreach to young adults in an emerging church form); God With Us in Jackson Township (a new start); a Cranford-based outreach to differently-abled persons and their families; Spanish-speaking outreach by St. John in Passaic; Asian Indian outreach in partnership with St. Paul in Jersey City; and the ongoing strategic mission to the city of Camden in partnership with Lutheran Social Ministries of New Jersey, the Camden congregations of Grace, Christus, and Bridge of Peach, New Visions community services, and key suburban congregations in Camden and Burlington counties.

In the midst of change and uncertainty – when some are wracked by anxiety and lash out in frustration – when our detractors presume to define our identity with disparagement and contempt – when some seek to rend this church in pious outrage – we are called to remember who we are in Christ Jesus. St. Paul reminds us that even when the whole creation groans in labor pains, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us “with sighs too deep for words.” (Rom 8:26) “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28) We know that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:39) We know who we are because of God’s love; and in our faith, proclamation, and deeds, we embody the good news of Jesus Christ for the sake of the world.

The Rev. Wyvetta Bullock, the ELCA’s Executive for Administration, brought us greetings from Presiding Bishop Hanson and introduced us to the ELCA’s Living Into the Future Together (LIFT) initiative. This initiative invites all of us to intentionally think about the ELCA’s call to mission in light of our identity and the changes we see happening in our mission environment – our local communities, states, nation, and world. The Presiding Bishop, the Church Council, and the Conference of Bishops collaborated to appoint a task force to work on developing and recommending options for the future of our Church. The LIFT Task Force will engage congregations, synod meetings, and other gatherings of the church in conversations, and will invite us all individually to participate using 21^st Century social networking tools as well (Facebook, Twitter, websites, and email). Two specific questions will guide the conversations: What is God calling this church to be and to do in the future? What changes are in order to help us respond most faithfully? More information is available at the LIFT website.

This year’s Assembly offered five different topical hearings: Namibia and New Jersey Lutherans Walking Together; Book of Faith Initiative; American Images of Muslims; Children of Bosnia; and Poverty in New Jersey, State Government, the Church’s Voice. I attended the hearing Book of Faith Initiative, hosted by the Rev. Paul Lutz of Prince of Peace Church in Princeton Junction and our synod’s Book of Faith Advocate. We participated in an exercise demonstrating a “no preparation necessary” method of reading, digesting, interpreting, and discussing passages from Scripture. This is but one of many different ways groups of people might approach Scripture which does not require that the participants have any particular background or expertise in biblical studies (notwithstanding the expression no preparation necessary, the facilitator of the group study is prepared to facilitate conversation, but need not teach, per se). The whole idea of the Book of Faith initiative is to help ALL people in the church become more fluent in the first language of faith, the witness of Scripture. Beginning with Martin Luther himself, Lutherans have always maintained that we meet Christ in the witness of Scripture; dwelling in the Word of God means dwelling in the presence of the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, as we receive the written Word of witness. Here at Zion, we participate in this initiative through weekly Bible study and by our congregation’s enrollment in the Book of Faith Forum online.

Lutheran Social Ministries of New Jersey may be one of the best kept secrets of our church’s mission and ministry in this state, but the work we do for our neighbors in need through this inter-Lutheran agency has extraordinary and far-reaching consequences for peoples’ lives. In 2009, LSMNJ served nearly 5,000 people through a diversified social ministry program, including community outreach, adoptions, immigration and refugee programs, homeless shelters, residential services, special needs housing, affordable family housing, senior housing, senior health care, and a continuing care retirement community. As part of the LSMNJ report to the Assembly, we watched the short video Heroes of Hope, a compelling and inspiring documentary of an amazing accomplishment and ongoing services to the people of Camden. Additional information and videos can be found at the LSMNJ website.

Cross Roads Camp & Retreat Center reported that their new adult retreat center, The Christ Center, will open this summer and already has booked guests. This new facility is specifically designed for adults who prefer more comfortable and private accommodations, and features 16 private bedrooms with baths (accommodating up to 30 people at a time), three spacious meeting rooms, three outdoor decks, and a common kitchen. Located in Lebanon Township, NJ (about an hour’s drive from Rahway), Cross Roads is a welcoming, ecumenical retreat center and camp of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark and the NJ Synod of the ELCA. We are invited to visit the facilities and participate in their annual Volunteer Day on May 22 from 10am to 4pm (lunch provided).

For three consecutive years, the New Jersey Synod has welcomed a new member congregation. This year, Elect Saints Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hamilton joined our family. This congregation began as a Pentecostal church in Trenton under the leadership of Pr. Agnes Gbardoe, with a mission to serve Liberian and other West African immigrants. In 2001, the congregation established a mission in a Liberian refugee camp in Ghana with a current membership of over 150 persons. In 2005, they established a second mission congregation in Liberia, and in 2006 they founded the Martha C. Johnson Little Saints Orphanage, also in Liberia. Pr. Gbardoe approached the New Jersey Synod expressing interest in joining the ELCA, and in 2007, Elect Saints became a synodically approved worshipping community of our synod. Their congregation has about 125 members worshipping in their current home in Hamilton, but through their mission work, they count over 2,000 baptized members globally. After years of study, reorganization, and preparations, Elect Saints Evangelical Lutheran Church was welcomed as a full member of the New Jersey Synod on Saturday, May 8. Their reception was accompanied by enthusiastic singing and sustained applause! Their proven record of committed mission work and outreach is an inspiration to all of us.

Welcoming all people, as Christ has welcomed us!

2010-03-01T00:01:00.001-05:00

The following Welcome Statement was adopted by Zion’s congregation council on February 18, 2010.

Welcoming all people, as Christ has welcomed us!

We, the congregation of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Rahway, NJ, affirm with the apostle Paul that despite the diversity of our persons and our gifts, we who are baptized into the body of Christ are called by the Holy Spirit to live in harmony with one another and to welcome one another, just as Christ has welcomed each of us, for the glory of God (Romans 15:5-7). Indeed, in Christ "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female" (Galatians 3:28). Christ has made us one in Holy Baptism, and we welcome to the membership of this congregation all people who seek to be disciples of Jesus of Nazareth, without regard to distinctions among persons. “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:13)

Therefore, we publicly declare:

- that all persons are loved by God, without partiality (Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11; Ephesians 6:9);

- that all persons are welcome to become full members of this congregation through the sacrament of Holy Baptism or upon making a public Affirmation of Baptism, according to the teachings and practices of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America;

- that all members of this congregation are expected and encouraged to fully participate in the sacramental and communal life of this congregation; and

- that all members of this congregation are expected to live together in mutual love and service to one another and to our neighbors, as commanded by our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Abounding in Steadfast Love

2010-02-25T17:01:00.000-05:00

By the Rev. Margay Jo Whitlock

Ash Wednesday 2010

Joel 2:1-2; 12-17

Psalm 51

2 Corinthians 5:20b – 6:10

Mathew 6:1-6; 16-21

I was thinking about giving up sandwiches for Lent. But, then, I thought about the prophet Joel. “Rend your heart and not your garments”, says Joel. Or in my case “your menus”.

Joel is one of the so-called Minor Prophets, meaning his book doesn’t take all that long to read. Joel writes about the fallout from a plague of locusts. Alas! There are no grapes to make the wine. There is no grain to be harvested to make the flour. Blow the trumpet! (Not a modern trumpet, but a ram’s horn – a shofar.) Summon the people! Gather together for a fast.

Well, that’s interesting… gather together for a fast. So, it’s not about what I am going to give up; it’s about what we are going to give up. There’s also some irony here: a fast is called, but what would they eat anyway? All of the crops had been destroyed. Talk about a downturn in the economy! This is serious business.

When you come to church, you are supposed to remember to bring your envelope. But, Joel says, don’t worry that you can’t bring your proper offering. Who knows? Maybe the Lord himself will provide the offering. Instead, think of what you can give – your heart. And no, not your “achy breaky heart”.

In Joel’s time, the heart was thought to be the seat of the will, as opposed to the seat of emotion. Joel is telling us to break our wills to God, to offer our broken agendas to God. “Return to the Lord your God”, says Joel. Turn around. Face God. Proclaim a fast. A fast that’s not about giving up sandwiches, or chocolate, or alcohol, or whatever… This is a communal fast, meaning we are called to come together as a congregation and to give up the dividing walls between us.

How are we going to do this? By relying on the steadfast love of God. This Hebrew concept of the steadfast love of God is in essence the same thing as Lutherans talk about when they use the word gospel – as in law and gospel. God’s word comes to us in two ways: the law tells us what God wants us to do – return to the Lord, call a fast, come to church – and the gospel tells us what God does. God is gracious and merciful. And because God is gracious and merciful, we have courage to repent.

If our main concept of God is that of a judge dangling us over the pit, we’re not going to want to go there. But, because God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, we are given the necessary motivation to turn back and face God. The Law is what we do, or are supposed to do. The Gospel is what God does.

One of the problems of being human is that we like to pretend we are in charge. So, we like scenarios that fool us into believing we are in charge and that we can earn God’s love. If I act in this certain way, or if I don’t act in this other way, then God will love me. This is the human way of thinking. But, here is God’s way of thinking: because I love you so much, therefore, you will return my love. As Christians, we see God’s steadfast love in the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth. As followers of Jesus, we join together with other followers of Jesus to radiate his steadfast love to everyone we meet. We are called to welcome all people as children of God, and to love them as God loves us.

There can be no mistake. If it comes down to the law versus the gospel, the gospel will always win. Yes, the law is there for a reason – two reasons, actually: to keep good order in society, and to drive us back into the arms of Christ. So, you see, the gospel always trumps the law. And even though you are dust, and to dust you shall return, God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

Abounding in steadfast love.

American Areopagus

2010-02-04T20:27:00.001-05:00

By John Page

It always seems odd to me when I observe people trying to “evangelize” others by quoting Scripture at them. There’s a presumption that the content of Scripture is recognized by non-Christians as somehow relevant to them. But why should that be? Why would people who do not see themselves among the people of faith from whom, about whom, and to whom the Scriptures were written, consider the witness of Scriptures to be meaningful to their own lives and experiences?

St. Paul seems to have recognized this point himself. During his missionary journeys, according to the Book of Acts, he routinely visited the Jewish synagogues to worship and witness to Christ, pointing to the Jewish Scriptures to argue that Jesus was the Messiah the prophets had long anticipated. At that time, Christianity was still understood as a Jewish sect, and it made perfect sense that Paul would worship among fellow Jews and communicate with them in the context they understood and found meaningful.

But when Paul visited Athens, and stood in the Areopagus among people who were neither Jewish nor Christian, he took a different approach. Arguing his point from the witness of the prophets would not have been very meaningful or compelling to pagan Athenians, for whom the Jewish prophets were total strangers, and the narratives of Israel’s people and their historical experiences with God were of little or no import. Instead, Paul appealed to what the Athenians already knew. Starting with the common experiences of all people, as it were, Paul was able to make the particular experiences of one people more relevant. (Acts 17:16-34)

Some time ago, I read that America is becoming an increasingly pre-Christian society. Pre-Christian implies before Christianity became widespread and commonplace, as distinct from the term non-Christian, which simply implies that one is not now Christian, even if one may have been at some time. There was a time – a time in which many of us alive today actually lived – when most Americans could reasonably assume that everyone around us had some knowledge of and experience with Christianity, even if they weren’t active church-goers themselves. But that assumption is no longer valid. Surveys in recent years suggest increases in the percentages of people who have never been Christians, have never received any instruction in the Christian faith, and whose experience of Christian worship – if it is worship – is limited to the occasional wedding or funeral of an acquaintance. What these people may know of Christianity is largely what they observe in the popular media, which may well explain why Christianity is in decline; the headline hogs don’t typically offer flattering or accurate depictions of the Way of Jesus of Nazareth. While the percentage of pre-Christian and non-Christian peoples increases, the percentage of Christians in

America

declines. We are more and more likely to find ourselves today, and in the near future, in St. Paul’s position in the Areopagus.

So, how might we witness to the good news of Jesus Christ in the American Areopagus? Here’s my go at it…

We are Christians.

We believe that there is one God who created all things, and that God’s love is the sine qua non for understanding the relationship between God and creation. God created humankind in God’s own image, to bear God’s love in the world as both stewards of creation and beneficiaries of creation’s gifts and God’s abundant peace.

This was, and is, God’s vision and intention. But realistically, we all know how far removed the world is from that vision. Strained relationships, violence, poverty, sickness, greed, injustice, and indifference abound. No one completely escapes the consequences of our present circumstances; people, all living things, and the earth itself suffer. Even natural disasters testify to the magnitude of the chasm between God’s vision and the reality of our condition.

We recognize that much of what we and all of creation suffer is the consequence of our own human actions. We bear responsibility for what we do and what we leave undone, and all actions and inactions have consequences. The consequences may affect us now, but may just as well affect generations to come. We may see the cause-and-effect relationships clearly or not so clearly. We may even willfully turn a blind eye to the relationships to disingenuously deny our responsibility.

As people of faith, we understand that we must own up and accept responsibility. Strained relationships, violence, poverty, sickness, greed, injustice, and indifference are not the consequences of loving relationships; they exist because we become indifferent, or even hostile, to love as central to creation’s order. Whether by accident or design, in abandoning love, we have effectively rebelled against God and God’s vision.

But God does not abandon what God loves. We know this from our long history of recognizing God active in our lives and in the lives of our ancestors in faith. God’s love is willful and intentional; time and again, God reaches out to humankind to set our relationships right. God is determined that God’s vision will be our reality.

From among all the peoples of the earth, God called a wandering Aramean named Abraham to serve God, promising that from him and his wife Sarah a particular people would be the instruments of God’s reconciliation with all of humankind. Some two thousand years ago, that promise came to fruition when God came into the world in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, one of Abraham and Sarah’s descendents. That singular event in history inaugurated the process by which God puts all things right by God’s own decisive action. God calls all people to be recreated in God’s image, specifically in the image of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, who, sharing our humanity with us, draws us back to God and makes us the people we were meant to be from the very beginning. This is what we mean when we say we are to “put on Christ”.

This is the good news of Jesus Christ: God loves humankind and always will, and through the person of Jesus, God assures us that God’s peace will be a reality in this world. Through Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, God recreates us to be God’s image-bearers in the world, commands us to love all as we have been loved by Christ, and commissions us to share this good news with everyone by word and by deed.

And this, by the way, is why we at Zion summarize our own mission with the words: Love God, Love your neighbor, Tell the world!

Responding to Need in Haiti

2010-01-15T13:09:00.004-05:00

We serve Christ by serving those in need. I encourage anyone looking to make a financial donation to support relief efforts in

Haiti

to consider the ELCA’s International Disaster Response - Haiti Earthquake Relief. One hundred percent of your donation will be used for the relief efforts in Haiti. ELCA Disaster Response ministries have a long history of faithful and responsible service to people in desperate need.

Presiding Bishop Hanson of the ELCA has written an open letter to the members of this church summarizing this church’s response to the disaster, and encouraging all of us to give generously to those in need and to encourage others to do so as well.

To make a donation online, visit http://www.elca.org/haitiearthquake. This site also provides information for mailing checks and money orders.

Peace,

-John Page

Good Ideas Have Legs

2010-01-14T10:39:00.009-05:00

By John Page

“Good ideas have legs” says JIM DWYER of the NY Times in his article Where Unsold Clothes Meet People in Need. The article provides an example of how a single person can make an enormous difference in the lives of thousands of needy people. He briefly describes how in 1985, Suzanne Davis asked the president of Phillips-Van Heusen if his company had any excess (unsold) inventory that could be used by homeless men. That got the ball rolling, and the following year, she organized the New York Clothing Bank, where unworn garments, which might otherwise have been destroyed, are recovered and given to the needy.

While many clothing manufacturers or retailers have gotten on board with this, or similar, efforts, many still destroy unsold inventory. As Dwyer says, “the reasons are complex.” There’s a fear of competing with one’s own garbage. There’s concern that the millions of marketing dollars spent on creating brand images may be wasted if the “wrong” kinds of people are seen wearing brand-name garments. No doubt there’s also a good measure of indifference and ignorance as well. When Dwyer reported that a graduate student at City University recently discovered that a branch of clothing retailer H&M was slashing and trashing unsold garments, it triggered an avalanche of responses, including emails from people who knew of retailers all across the U.S. who routinely destroy unworn clothing.

Stories like this illustrate for me the tension between Christian discipleship and the way of the world. On the one hand, I understand perfectly well how a healthy economy works, how the expectation of reward or profit encourages creativity and risk, and how creativity and risk can lead to advances in knowledge and quality of life. I understand why people want to minimize risks – risks like competing with one’s own garbage or undermining brand image. And I understand that some people just can’t be bothered to think too hard about it.

On the other hand, I understand that Jesus of Nazareth expects self-sacrificing love from his disciples. Our neighbors in need – the least among us – are to be of paramount ethical concern for us. Our neighbors in need are Jesus in need. (Matthew 25:31-46) Professing “Jesus is Lord” is completely disingenuous if we treat our Lord with contempt or indifference. Christian disciples must live in and navigate through this world, never forgetting to whom we owe our lives and everything else we possess. Our neighbors in need are to be the beneficiaries of our debt.

Christian disciples typically want to be both faithful and pragmatic, which can lead to tension. We are to be wise and clever in the ways of this world, but we must not be disciples of the ways of the world. We must render to Caesar what properly belongs to Caesar, but never forget that all things, including Caesar, belong to God. We are to be mindful of the “powers and principalities” that appear to govern the world – economics, physical sciences, human nature – but we must never permit them to become our lords. Whatever authority God has given to individuals or to the natural mechanisms of creation, God has not relinquished God’s own authority. Our Lord stands over and against all other pretenders.

Good ideas are not always pragmatic, but Christian discipleship requires that we sometimes act more faithfully than pragmatically; that we sometimes give up some benefit or advantage for the sake of others, especially for those in need. This is not so much the way of the world, but the Way of Jesus.

The Singing Church

2010-01-06T12:41:00.002-05:00

By John Page

In a recent blog post, Nadia Bolz-Weber reflects on the demise of congregational singing in many churches. LutheranChik also observes how anemic congregational singing can be in churches these days. Both consider the reasons for this development, especially in churches which historically encouraged enthusiastic singing from the pews.

Both critique the trend to professionalize music in our culture. Singing seems to have become an exclusive art in peoples’ minds, for which some have the appropriate talent and some do not. Those who suppose they “do not” mute their voices or don’t bother to move their lips at all. So many people seem reluctant to sing out with joy and vigor, even when familiar hymns are sung.

But, singing is NOT an exclusive art. Singing is a normal way for all people to express themselves; it is built into our human nature. And communal singing has long been a way for whole communities to remember, tell, and celebrate their common experiences. When Martin Luther wrote hymns set to the music of well-known tavern songs, he did so specifically to encourage EVERYONE to sing in worship of God. One did not have to be a professional or trained musician to make the music of worship; the music of worship is meant to come from us all.

During the first of our two Christmas Eve services this year, the choir began singing a descant over the third verse of Silent Night, expecting the assembly to continue with the verse; instead the people in the pews fell silent and all that could be heard was the descant. Ooops! During the second service, the organist increased the volume for the third verse, in hopes that the people in the pews would be encouraged to continue singing.

So, how might we encourage confident and enthusiastic singing from the pews? That’s a question well known to worship and music leaders. Some churches ban instrumental accompaniment, and insist on a cappella music only. Some church musicians have been known to stop playing instruments during some verses of hymns to emphasize the singing. Personally, I’d like to get away from choir anthems during worship, precisely because “performance pieces” during worship seem to feed the idea that the music is for passive consumption – entertainment – and best left to the “professionals”. Instead I’d like to see choir and instrumentalists intentionally find ways to encourage, enable, and facilitate singing by everyone in the worshiping assembly.

As Luther might have said: Sing boldly, that grace may abound!

The Spirit of Change

2009-12-18T09:23:00.002-05:00

By John Page

The Holy Spirit has a way of shaking things up: the church is born; people are inspired to proclaim good news from God – starting in Jerusalem and then to the whole world; old ways and understandings give way to the new; and those once alienated are reconciled and welcomed. That’s just a quick and dirty summary of what’s described in the Acts of the Apostles.

Of course, not everyone reacts favorably to the Holy Spirit’s new ways. As expected, those opposed to Christianity certainly didn’t like what the Spirit was doing in the first century, but surprisingly, sometimes Christians themselves didn’t like what the Spirit was up to. In Acts, the Spirit’s welcome of unclean Gentiles was a particularly hard thing to accept (Acts 15), and in his epistles, a very frustrated St. Paul speaks to the persistence of those Christians determined to thwart the Spirit.

Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit always prevails and the church reforms as the Spirit requires. That’s true in every century, notwithstanding the varied reactions people may have. And it is equally true in our own time.

In August 2009, the Holy Spirit shook up the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA): the ELCA Assembly adopted Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust and approved changes to the ELCA’s policies, effectively welcoming Christians in same-gender marriages, or in otherwise committed and publicly accountable relationships (recognizing that marriage equality is not universal under civil laws), to openly serve Christ’s church in public ministry, as the Holy Spirit calls them. Predictably, the reactions varied from joy, to indifference, to indignation.

The Rev. Eric Lemonholm recently posted an open letter to the members of his congregation, some of whom have called for a special congregation meeting to decide whether to remain a member congregation of the ELCA. He speaks against breaking with the ELCA, offering historical, theological, biblical, and common-sense arguments for not only remaining in the ELCA, but for recognizing in the Assembly’s actions how the Holy Spirit has created opportunities for mission and evangelism. His letter is eloquent, respectful of those who disagree, and compelling. Though it is lengthy, I commend it to anyone interested not only in the specific issues decided by the Assembly, but also in an example of the way Christians can live, love, and serve Christ together in the midst of our diversity and disagreements.

Discipleship and Budgets

2009-11-19T23:00:00.004-05:00

By John Page

On Saturday morning (November 14, 2009), I and about 300 other people gathered for a special assembly[1] of the New Jersey Synod. [2] According to the “rules”, the sole item on our agenda was the Synod’s 2010 spending plan – what most people know as a budget. But, whatever the “rules” stated, the real item on the agenda was “discipleship”.

Jim Wallis and the good people at Sojourners stress that budgets are moral documents. In effect, our budgets are statements of our moral convictions – of our moral choices and values. What we do with our resources speaks to our concerns, including our ultimate concern. Our budgets reveal something of ourselves – our fears, our desires, and our priorities. Our budgets also reveal something of our perceptions of others – what they will think of us and how they will react. And our budgets reveal which “others” are most important to us – those whom we desire to please and serve.

In my experience, budget discussions – or perhaps “debates” is more descriptive – tend to focus on the allocation of limited resources. A shadow of scarcity typically lurks nearby, and occasionally darkens the room entirely. Most people dread the annual “stewardship campaign” – or whatever it may be called – because it stirs up underlying fears of scarcity and of having to commit to sharing limited resources. People “don’t like to talk about money”, not because there is anything inherently distasteful about discussing our commitments to share our resources with others, but because we have to deal with fear-in-your-face.

Of course, fear can be useful to some people – it can serve their interests and their agenda. It’s standard fare in secular politics – and in ecclesiastical politics as well. Some will exploit the fear of limited resources to advance a particular interest, in effect trying to hold the needs of others hostage to their agenda. Fear suits some people.

Since the ELCA Assembly acted this summer to approve the social statement Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust and to change ministry policies to allow people in committed same-gender relationships to serve the church as the Holy Spirit calls them, some have sought to exploit the fear of scarce resources to either punish the church or to thwart the Assembly’s actions. Fear suits them – but it also consumes them. (In response to a question I asked, Bishop Riley informed the special assembly that based on his conversations with members and congregations of the New Jersey Synod, discontent with the ELCA Assembly’s actions had no significant impact on current or anticipated mission support here; declines in support are attributed to general economic conditions in this state and throughout the nation.)

Fear isn’t just a handy tool in the toolbox of our ambitions. Fear is a “power” with a life – or death – of its own. Whatever our own ambitions, Fear has an agenda of its own. Fear is no person’s slave; it disingenuously serves whom it desires to consume.

The antithesis of scarcity is abundance, and the antithesis of fear is faith and hope. To an objective observer, many of us fretting over the scarcity of our resources appear to be out of touch with reality; we have more than all our fretting implies. The shadow of scarcity conceals the abundance of what we have, and who isn’t afraid of dark places? And while fear discourages us from exploring dark places, faith and hope encourage us to light a lamp and push the shadows back. Jesus tells whoever would follow him, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”[3] Jesus’ own light illumines our dark places, and invites us to fearlessly and faithfully venture forward. Without diminishing the brightness of Jesus’ own light, he shares that light with us, so that others may see – and benefit from – the good works we do for one another and for our neighbors for the sake of glorifying our Father. Because we have faith in God’s promises of abundant blessings, and hope in the perfection of God’s reign, the interloper Fear has no proper place among Jesus’ disciples.

And so I was pleased to observe Jesus’ disciples in New Jersey act with faith and hope, trusting in God’s abundant blessings. Setting aside fears of economic uncertainties, the Synod Assembly overwhelmingly endorsed a spending plan that affirms our continued mission and service to the people of New Jersey, to our nation, and to the whole world. The spending plan commits us to growing our financial support for the work of the church, reducing administrative costs, and increasing our efforts in outreach (specifically Latino outreach and urban mission development), in peace and justice advocacy, in ecumenical and interfaith cooperation, in public communication, in leadership support and development, and in mission support to the ELCA. While some line items saw reductions in financial support – or even elimination – presenters of the spending plan pointed to some innovative and promising ideas for still continuing the ministries and services funded by those lines.

Our 2010 Spending Plan aspires to be both a faithful moral document and a hope-filled mission statement for Jesus’ disciples in New Jersey. God grant us the Spirit to rise to the call of discipleship and to bear its costs faithfully.

[1] The special assembly fell short of a quorum by only 6 people. Consequently, the assembly acted as a “quasi-committee of the whole”, which gave non-binding advice to the Synod Council concerning the 2010 Spending Plan.

[2] For those not that familiar with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), “synods” are roughly analogous to dioceses. They are typically geographical groupings of congregations which support the mission of the church in their territories, including evangelism, advocacy, preparation and endorsement of candidates for public ministries of the church, mutual support of congregations, oversight and discipline, and coordination of resources.

[3] Matthew 5:16

Anticipating Christ the King

2009-11-13T10:44:00.006-05:00

By John Page

A child is raped, and witnesses either ignore it or cheer.[1] People are beaten and murdered because of their race or perceived immigration status, and the victims are too afraid to seek help.[2] A disgruntled man opens fire on former colleagues at their workplace.[3] A mentally ill physician murders 13 people before he is stopped[4] and Muslims across the country are fearful of the consequences to innocent people.[5] Poor and dispossessed residents of Cleveland mourn the serial murders of their daughters and neighbors, and accuse the local authorities of indifference to their plight.[6] A broad measure of unemployment in the

U.S.

shows that 17.5% of the nation’s workers are either unemployed or underemployed.[7] Perceptions of injustice rooted in economic disparities plague efforts to address the availability of necessary healthcare[8], and even the distribution of H1N1 vaccine.[9]

This is just a sampling from news headlines during the past week or so. Of course, not all news is bad news, but a listing of all the happy stories I might find among the headlines can only briefly distract us from a realistic appreciation of the seriousness and persistence of what ails us. Don’t misunderstand; I’m no Gloomy Gus jaded by reality or resigned to a violent, unjust, and uncaring world. Neither am I prone to a “happy-clappy” optimism that simply ignores reality.

I look for a fuller understanding of reality – reality that encompasses what is, what was, and what will be. Reality includes our understanding of what ought to be, our vision of what is possible, our confidence that working toward our vision is not in vain, and our anticipation of that vision’s perfection. “Change” is very much a part of reality, and all change is guided either by purposeful effort or effortless entropy.

To what purpose, then, should we live in this world and direct our efforts?

Very soon, the church will celebrate Christ the King. With this festival, we conclude a full year of remembering and retelling the Gospel of Jesus Christ, through Sunday readings and seasonal commemorations. For an entire year we have traced the story of Jesus of Nazareth and the Way of Jesus:

- the prophetic promises of Advent;

- the joyful celebration of Jesus’ nativity;

- Jesus’ public ministry of bringing God’s kingdom near to the sick, poor, and oppressed;

- Jesus’ calling of disciples to learn, walk in, and spread the Way of Jesus;

- Jesus’ contention with those opposed to his Way;

- Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, torture, and murder;

- Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, that both vanquished the power that death can have over us, and encourages us to have hope and faith in Jesus and his Way;

- Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit to the church – the Spirit of Christ that dwells with us;

- and the disciples’ continued mission of love and service in the Way of Jesus, who despite their own frailties – and the sometimes deadly opposition of others – stayed the Way, and invited others to go with them and with Jesus.

The story of Jesus of Nazareth and of Jesus’ disciples offers us a vision of humankind and all of creation that issues directly from the Creator. The story tells of the creation as God intended from the beginning – all things created good, and humankind created in God’s image to care for one another and for all of creation. The story repudiates what has gone awry from God’s intentions – injustice, violence, poverty, famine – and invites humankind to turn back to God and God’s original vision. The story tells of a re-creation inaugurated by God – a re-creation of humankind in the image of God-with-us, Jesus of Nazareth. And at the story’s conclusion, what God has inaugurated comes to its perfection with the full restoration of humankind and all of creation to its original purpose and goodness. To this purpose, God calls us to live and direct our efforts.

On the day we commemorate Christ the King, we hold up and celebrate the end of the story – the perfection of what God inaugurated at the birth of Jesus. The end is what we look forward to, the vision we pursue by means that anticipate and embody the end of our pursuit. The end gives hope and inspiration to continue when events and circumstances conspire to threaten and overwhelm us, because we already know how the story will end.

On the day we commemorate Christ the King, the prophet Daniel[10] will remind us that God has not abandoned us to the way things were or the way things are. Whatever threatens us, all of creation belongs to God and to God’s chosen one, and the end of the story is certain. Despite all evidence to the contrary, for people of faith, “the belief and hope in a Savior that enters exactly where the forces of chaos seem to be most rampant is what allows one to get up and face the day.”[11] Our labor in Christ is not in vain.[12]

On the day we commemorate Christ the King, the prophet John of Patmos[13] will remind us to whom all creation and all time belongs: “’I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” John addressed his prophecy to churches struggling with complacency, assimilation, temptation, and even violent persecution – which is to say, John addressed all churches in every place and time. And in the fullness of his prophecy, John encourages and admonishes the faithful to never forget the end of the story, and to live in the Spirit of Christ with the certainty of our hope and faith that God’s intentions for creation will come to perfection. Our labor in Christ is not in vain.

On the day we commemorate Christ the King, the evangelist John[14] will remind us that Jesus of Nazareth is God’s chosen Savior of creation, and that God’s purposes will not go unopposed. Those who profit or benefit from injustice, violence, poverty, and famine will conspire against God; murder and subterfuge are not beneath their scruples. Nevertheless, the end of the story is certain. Death will not be the final verdict on God’s purposes. Our labor in Christ is not in vain.

We have a fuller understanding of reality precisely because we know the end of the story and anticipate Christ the King.

[1] 4 Arraigned in Gang Rape of Calif. Girl at School, California: Seventh Arrest in Gang Rape, Richmond Gang Rape: Coping With the Shock

[2] After immigrant killed in NY, others tell of abuse

[3] Gunman Shoots 6 and Kills 1 in Fla.

[4] Army Doctor Held in Ft. Hood Rampage

[5] Another Attack Leaves US Muslims Fearing Backlash

[6] After Gruesome Find, Anger at Cleveland Police

[7] Broader Measure of U.S. Unemployment Stands at 17.5%

[8] Are Doctors What Ails U.S. Healthcare?

[9] Goldman Sachs, Citigroup got swine flu vaccine

[10] Daniel 7:9-14

[11] Claassens, Juliana. Commentary on Daniel 7:9-14. WorkingPreacher.org.

[12] 1 Corinthians 15:58

[13] Revelation 1:4b-8

[14] John 18:33-37

Where’s Jesus?

2009-11-10T00:01:00.004-05:00

By John Page

In 2007, the Barna Group published a study of perceptions of Christianity among 16- to 29-year-old Americans.[1] They found that among young non-Christians, 87% perceive Christianity as judgmental, and 85% as hypocritical. Even among young Christians, about half agreed that Christianity is judgmental and hypocritical.[2] The researchers found that one of the most frequent unprompted observations by both Christians and non-Christians was that "Christianity in today’s society no longer looks like Jesus."[3] Little wonder, if nearly 9 out of 10 non-Christians describe Christianity with the same terms Jesus himself used to characterize his antagonists.

Do these perceptions matter to us? They ought to, precisely because the church’s commission[4] is to make disciples of all peoples by proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. If proclamation is our task, clarity of proclamation is no trivial consideration. And what we “do” is every bit as important as what we “say”, because our conduct will proclaim as loudly as – if not louder than – our words.

If the church is the body of Christ, shouldn’t Jesus be more visible among us? Shouldn’t Jesus’ antagonists be less visible among us? If so, we might start by examining what makes Jesus recognizable.

Jesus and the Kingdom of God

According to the Gospels, Jesus inaugurated his public ministry by proclaiming that the kingdom of God had come near – which we are told is good news – and inviting people to turn their lives around and believe the good news.[5] His proclamation included teachings about the nature of God’s kingdom, tangible signs of the kingdom’s presence, and its consequences for people’s lives. But why would the nearness of God’s kingdom be “good news”?

Actually, it wasn’t good news to everyone. But, for those living with hunger and abject poverty, for those tormented by chronic sicknesses or demons, for those grieving untimely deaths, for those treated as disposable human commodities, for those who longed for justice in a despotic society – for those people, the nearness of God’s kingdom was welcome good news. In Jesus’ teachings which we know as the Beatitudes, we are told:

- Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. (Luke 6:20; Matthew 5:3 reads “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”)

- Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. (Luke 6:21a; Matthew 5:6 reads “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”)

- Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. (Luke 6:21b; Matthew 5:4 reads “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”)

- Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. (Luke 6:22; Matthew 5:11-12 reads “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”)

- Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)

- Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. (Matthew 5:7)

- Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. (Matthew 5:8)

- Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matthew 5:9)

- Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:10)

According to Jesus, people should expect a radically different and abundant life in the kingdom of God. The differences will lie precisely in the reversal or abolition of abusive and unjust conditions, in relief from grief and suffering, and in a new understanding of what it means to be blessed. We sometimes refer to popular, powerful, wealthy, or otherwise fortunate people – as defined by the conventional standards of our world – as “blessed”, but according to Jesus, in the kingdom of God, blessedness and God’s favor belong to others: the poor, the hungry, the grieving, the persecuted, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers.

And the kingdom of God is near. Jesus did not proclaim some distant “new society” far off into the future or in another life. Jesus accompanied his proclamation with tangible signs of God’s reign breaking into the world here and now, including healings, casting out demons[6], feeding the hungry, and raising the dead. Jesus relieved people’s afflictions and restored them to community[7]. And Jesus sent his disciples to do the same thing:

Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. (Luke 9:1-2)

After this, the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, "Peace to this house!' And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, "The kingdom of God has come near to you.' (Luke 10:1-9)[8]

With words and tangible evidence, both Jesus and his disciples proclaimed the nearness of God’s kingdom here and now.

As noted before, not everyone greeted this proclamation as good news. For those who only see life in categories of “winners” and “losers”, where “blessings” are in short supply and have to be rationed and hoarded, the nearness of God’s kingdom poses a serious threat. The Beatitudes suggest a reversal of fortunes, and the wealthy fear for their wealth; the powerful for their power; the influential for their influence; and the privileged for their privilege. Fear of becoming one of the “losers” leads to desperate actions, and in the case of Jesus and many of his disciples, that fear could only be placated with the decisive end of the so-called “good news” and those who proclaimed it. Jesus was not the first Jewish “messiah” – nor the last – and experience taught the fearful that an appropriately gruesome and humiliating death[9] for messianic leaders effectively buried their messages with their corpses.

But Jesus’ resurrection frustrated the purposes of the fearful. By raising Jesus from the dead, God effectively vindicated Jesus’ mission, Jesus’ proclamation that God’s kingdom has come near, and Jesus’ teachings about the consequences of God’s kingdom for humankind and for all of creation.[10] The new community that Jesus created with his disciples was called to embody the risen Jesus and to continue his mission to all people.[11]

The Disciples

Before his crucifixion, Jesus gave his disciples a “new commandment”:

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35)

By mutual love, Jesus’ disciples make Jesus’ presence known. What’s more, the disciples are to love one another as Jesus loved them. Often misunderstood and much abused, “love” as Jesus loved is no sentimental indulgence. Jesus’ love was intentional under the most revolting – and risky – circumstances[12]. For Jesus and his disciples, it wasn’t just about feeling love; it was about doing love.

But Jesus’ love is not constrained exclusively within the community of believers; disciples are to love their neighbors – all neighbors – as well. Love manifest is the sine qua non of the kingdom of God and of the kingdom’s proclamation. Love lies at the heart of the Beatitudes, and it is the foundation upon which the entire law of God is established.

When the Pharisees heard that [Jesus] had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:34-40)

Jesus’ disciples are to love one another and all people as Jesus loves them. By this, the kingdom of God is proclaimed with words and actions. By this, everyone will know them to be Jesus’ disciples. By this, everyone will see Jesus among his disciples.

St. Paul referred to the community of believers – the church – as the body of Christ.[13] Paul’s frequent allusions to the body of Christ were addressed to churches struggling to embody the risen Jesus in their communities. The first century believers were known to divide into factions, to treat each other inhospitably and carelessly, to intellectualize the gospel, and to question each other’s relative righteousness before God.[14] Proclaiming the “words” of the “good news” is easy enough, but proclaiming the “good news” in both words and tangible signs of love in community proved to be a challenge to Jesus’ disciples. And without tangible signs, the words ring hollow or disingenuous, and the community breaks.

So Paul reminds believers that they are a body – the body of Christ. Each member of the body participates in the whole, and the whole serves the head – who is Christ. Diverse as the body may be, each member is essentially joined to the others in Jesus’ love – for the purpose of manifesting that love with words and actions – and thereby make Jesus known and visible for all to see.

Making Jesus Visible

Why do so many today say that Christianity no longer looks like Jesus? We know that Jesus proclaimed the nearness of God’s kingdom with words and tangible signs. We know that God’s kingdom is welcome good news to the poor, the hungry, the abused, the sick and grieving, and those who yearn for peace and justice. We know that God’s love pervades God’s kingdom, and that intentional self-sacrificing love is the clearest evidence that God’s kingdom is near. We know that Jesus’ disciples are called to manifest Jesus’ own love for one another and for all people – to embody the risen Christ, and thereby make Jesus known.

If Christianity no longer looks like Jesus, we Christians have no one to blame but ourselves. We obscure Jesus’ presence in the body of believers when we fail to proclaim the nearness of God’s kingdom with both words and tangible actions that the poor, the hungry, the abused, the sick, the grieving, and those who yearn for peace and justice can recognize and welcome as good news. We obscure Jesus’ presence in the body of believers when we avoid intentional self-sacrificing love for one another and for our neighbors, and instead sacrifice one another and our neighbors on the altars of our own righteousness. We obscure Jesus’ presence in the body of believers when we hijack – or passively allow others to hijack – the name of Jesus to proclaim the bad news – the anti-gospel – that poverty, hunger, abuse, sickness, grief, violence, and injustice are perfectly acceptable if working toward their abolition isn’t profitable or doesn’t otherwise serve our own self-indulgent agenda. We obscure Jesus’ presence in the body of believers when by words and actions we deservedly earn a reputation of arrogant pretentiousness that revels in the show of “righteousness” – as if we are somehow better than “those” people – while forgetting entirely that we are debtors ourselves whose gratitude to God can only be expressed by self-sacrificing acts of love toward our neighbors – including “those” people. And we obscure Jesus’ presence in the body of believers when we manipulate the instruments of secular power to serve the anti-gospel – in the name of God, of all things!

Healing... How do we make Jesus visible in the church in the midst of our current national debate about healthcare? Jesus made healing one of the most obvious signs of the nearness of God’s kingdom, revealing God’s compassion for the sick and afflicted who were otherwise without hope or recourse. Christians might reasonably and faithfully disagree about the “particulars” of what healthcare reform should look like, but can we plausibly dispute the claims that God desires the health and wellbeing of all people, and that profitability is an unconscionable excuse for allowing sickness and affliction to continue when remedies are available? When fear, greed, and secular partisan ambitions conspire against efforts to make healing and relief available to all people, the body of Christ is called to act with hope, with the intentional love of Christ, and with a partisan commitment to making the nearness of God’s kingdom a tangible reality for everyone who suffers disease and affliction.[15]

Making peace… One of the longest running conflicts of sustained violence in this and the previous century has been the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people. How do Christians make Jesus visible in the midst of pervasive distrust, anger, and violence? We might reasonably and faithfully disagree about the “particulars” of what a just and enduring peace agreement should look like, but can we plausibly dispute the claim that God desires that all people live in peace with one another and be treated justly? When hate, lust for power, and extremist religious convictions – even grotesque distortions of Christianity[16] – conspire to make violence and injustice acceptable, the body of Christ is called to act with hope, with the intentional love of Christ, and with a Jesus-like commitment to making the nearness of God’s kingdom of peace a tangible reality.[17]

Thirsting for righteousness… Far too often throughout the centuries, Christians have abandoned mutual love for one another for the pretense of righteousness. We have a long history of supplanting the apostles’ teachings that the righteousness of God is disclosed through faith in Jesus Christ[18] with false teachings about the righteousness of being bound to the law. Loving one another as Christ loves us has been of secondary importance to being right about our righteousness. “The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it” – and God forbid that the Holy Spirit should act beyond the constraints of established law, dogma, tradition, and ministry policies! How do we make Jesus visible in the midst of our family squabbles? Surely, Jesus’ commandment “… love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” would go far in making Jesus visible for all to see, for “by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”.[19] When righteous indignation, hidden agendas, and pious contempt for others[20] conspire to rend us, the body of Christ is called to act with hope, with the intentional love of Christ, and with Jesus’ own commitment to making the nearness of God’s kingdom a tangible reality in our communities of faith, as places where Christ-like love abounds.

Following the Way of Jesus… The Way of Jesus stands in contrast to the way of the world, precisely because hope in God’s kingdom and the work of making the Beatitudes a tangible reality for people can often seem ludicrous to the faithless; self-sacrificing love for strangers is pointless; and a single-minded commitment to the kingdom of God, and making the nearness of God’s kingdom known by words and deeds, can pose a serious challenge to the demands and expectations of human kingdoms. The Way of Jesus is a challenging way to follow, and we Christians have often found ways to mitigate the challenges: we’ve found novel and convoluted ways to confuse the kingdom of God with the kingdom of human ambitions – to transform Christianity into Christendom; we’ve become so adept at “spiritualizing” the Beatitudes and the kingdom of God, that we are content to push out to some future undetermined date any tangible evidence of the nearness of God’s kingdom, making Christianity little more than a cognitive and largely self-centered exercise in self-justification and personal salvation – Caesar need not worry himself about the Jesus who’s just lord of my life, and who otherwise makes no inconvenient demands on the whole world, where greed, self-interest, and fear are beatified.

We make Jesus visible among us, for all the world to see, when we follow the Way of Jesus; when we embrace the kingdom of God for all that it stands for: relief and blessings for the poor, the hungry, the grieving, the persecuted, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers; when we proclaim the good news that God’s kingdom is near, by words and tangible signs; when we love one another in the body with the intentional self-sacrificing love of Christ; and when we love all people in the same way that all people are loved by Jesus.[21]

[1] Kinnaman, David, and Lyons, Gabe. unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007

[2] Ibid., p.34.

[3] “A New Generation Expresses its Skepticism and Frustration with Christianity”. Barna Group. September 24, 2007. http://barna.org/barna-update/article/16-teensnext-gen/94-a-newgeneration-expresses-its-skepticism-and-frustration-with-christianity

[4] See Matthew 28:16-20

[5] See Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:14-15; Luke 4:43

[6] Whatever you may make of demon possession, the relevant point is that people suffered.

[7] Certain afflictions could make a person “unclean”, which could require that they restrict their contact with others or be removed from communities. Examples include leprosy (Matthew 8:1-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-16), menstrual bleeding (Matthew 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-34; Luke 8:40-56), and demon possession (Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:22-39).

[8] See also Matthew 10:1-15

[9] According to Deuteronomy 21:22-23, a person executed by hanging on a “tree” was cursed by God, making crucifixion an especially effective way of ending messianic careers.

[10] Debates about the “historicity” of Jesus’ resurrection tend to miss the theological point that his resurrection validates his mission and proclamation. When Christians affirm the resurrection of Christ, we profess our conviction that Jesus faithfully and authoritatively represented God’s kingdom in his life and teachings. We further profess, that in baptism we are united to Christ in his continuing life and mission, with the hope of the resurrection assuring us that Christ’s mission is valid and our participation in his mission is not in vain.

[11] See Mark 16:14-20; Matthew 28:16-20; Luke 24:44-49; John 20:19-23; Acts 1:4-8

[12] Jesus’ willingness to suffer and die for the sake of his mission and proclamation to the world is the most obvious and dramatic example and model of how Jesus loves. But Jesus’ ministry abounded with acts of risky and intentional love. Examples include healing people in defiance of the law (Luke 5:17-26; Luke 14:1-6; John 5:1-16) and risking ostracism and retribution by associating with the wrong – unclean – people (Matthew 9:9-13; Matthew 9:20-22; Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 5:25-34; Mark 7:24-30; Luke 5:27-32; Luke 7:1-10; Luke 8:43-48).

[13] See Romans 7:4; Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:27; 1 Corinthians 12:12; Ephesians 3:6; Ephesians 4:12; Colossians 3:15

[14] Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians provides a substantial litany of some of the problems. See 1 Corinthians 1:10-13; 1 Corinthians 1:17-31; 1 Corinthians 3:16-20; 1 Corinthians 8; 1 Corinthians 11:18-22.

[15] See the ELCA social statement Health and Healthcare – Caring for Health: Our Shared Endeavor. Also, Jim Wallis at Sojourners offers some thoughts about faith-based principles to guide efforts to reform American healthcare: A Faith Declaration for Health-Care Reform

[16] Christian Zionism of the 20^th and early 21^st centuries, coupled to “dispensationalist” theology, actually justifies and encourages ongoing violence and injustice toward Palestinian people – including Palestinian Christians – because Christian Zionists are convinced that it is God’s will that the Biblical land of Israel must be “cleansed” of what they consider interlopers, in anticipation of “end-time” events. For more information, see Toward a Lutheran Response to Christian Zionism by the Rev. Robert O. Smith of ELCA Global Mission.

[17] Ann Hafften provides frequent updates and information about peace and advocacy efforts toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at her blog A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Middle East Peace.

[18] See Romans 1:16-17; Romans 3:21-24

[19] See John 13:34-35

[20] Lutheran CORE’s website provides a number of examples: A Vision for Lutheran CORE, RECONFIGURATION, and What After Minneapolis?

[21] The ELCA tagline “God’s work, our hands.” represents something of our Church’s understanding of our mission and purpose, and encourages all of the members of the Church, individually and together, to make Jesus’ mission of proclaiming the nearness of God’s kingdom a present reality for all people, and to invite others to join that mission. Read the theological foundation for this tagline here.

Surprised by Grace

2009-11-06T00:15:00.004-05:00

By Luann Albanese

When I first started discovering who God was, as a child, I was terrified because I was taught that I had to behave a certain way or do certain things in order for God to love me and allow me into heaven with Him when my time came. Whenever I would not go to bed when I should, did not finish my homework, did not eat my vegetables, or did not do whatever it was my parents were asking me to do – no matter what it was – I was told that God would punish me and I would be sent to live in hell with Satan and all the bad people. So, growing up, I felt that I could never make any mistakes, I always had to be perfect, and I had to always do “good” things, otherwise, God would not love me and when I died God would never let me live with Him in heaven.

When I was a youth, something happened to me that was very bad. It was not my fault, but I thought it was. I blamed myself so much that I began to hate myself and thought that God must hate me too. This experience made me feel separated from God’s love. I used to believe that there were some things that were just so unforgivable and too awful for even God to forgive. I would hide from my friends and frequently do things to physically hurt myself, like binging and purging. Doing this kind of thing is not always about being thin as most people might think. For me, it was strictly about punishing myself because I thought I was a bad person.

After doing this to myself, I would spend some time alone, hating myself and quietly thinking that this was the punishment I deserved. I thought if I punished myself, then God would not punish me. But in reality, what I did to myself only made me feel better for a short period of time. After a while, I would just feel bad all over again because I never felt that the punishment was enough and no matter what I did, I still did not feel it was enough to earn God’s love so that he would save me.

I know now that only God can save us from ourselves and no matter what we do or how hard we try, there is no way we can save ourselves on our own. But, for a long time, I felt no comfort in God because I was not taught about God’s love for me or God’s grace and mercy. I was only taught about the law and knew nothing about the good news of the Gospel, as I know it today. When you feel that you are unable to take refuge in God’s love, it can be a very scary and isolating experience.

I spent much of my life depending on people to validate my self-worth. I would rely on their words and opinions to make me feel good about myself rather than relying on the Word of God and God’s love. I learned the hard way that looking to, and depending solely on, the opinions of people, rather than trusting in God’s love for me and who I am in God’s heart, is an exhausting and unfulfilling experience. I have found that most human love is not always unconditional and may not always be as genuine as it might seem. But, God’s love is.

I still struggle with this sometimes, but reading my Bible and listening to God’s word when it is taught or preached to me, has helped me to know that God loves me. It does not matter what other people’s opinions or criticisms of me are, or even what their beliefs are, as long as I know who I am in God’s heart.

Over the past several years, I discovered that it is not a question of whether one deserves God’s love or not, because it is a gift freely given, unconditionally, to everyone. I am still learning that no matter what we have done in our past, or the mistakes that we continue to make, God never stops loving us. We are not perfect, we are just human, and no one is immune to mistakes, bad decisions or bad behavior. God knows we are not perfect. God made us. And even though God is not happy when we behave badly, or when we fail, God still loves us.

It is a relief for me to hear that there is nothing I have to do to earn God’s love or my salvation. I spent many years putting so much pressure on myself trying to be perfect, worrying about everything I did and said, because I thought I had to earn my ticket into heaven. This was a complete waste of time because Jesus already bought my ticket into heaven.

This realization has been the beginning of a new world for me. Sometimes, I still find myself trying to adjust my mind and my heart to this way of thinking and living in God’s love and grace. It is not something that can happen overnight, it takes time to begin to feel a sense of peace. I spent almost my entire life trying to find a way to God’s love so that I could secure my salvation. Well, you could imagine my surprise and relief when I realized that God’s love was with me all along, my whole life, the entire time, and I didn’t know it. I always had God’s love, and the gift of salvation was already mine. The Holy Spirit was living inside of me the whole time. I was searching for something that I already had.

When I finally came to terms with this reality, in a way I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. She was always trying so hard to find her way home, when she already had the gift to get home all along. It was with her the whole time in the Ruby Slippers, but she didn’t know it until someone told her. Just like I had the gift of the Holy Spirit inside of me all along and I didn’t know it until God found a way to tell me. Now I don’t have to search for it anymore. I just have to keep reminding myself that it is right here.

As it says in Romans 8: 26-27,

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints (saints, meaning us as forgiven sinners) according to the will of God.

There are times when I struggle with the knowledge that God’s love is unconditional and a gift freely given that has always been there for me and for all of us. Opening my heart to understanding and accepting this is making a significant difference in the way I live my life and how I love and care for others. The biggest challenge for me has always been accepting that God loves us no matter what, even when there are times we feel the least loveable, God will never abandon us. So, why live with regret or guilt when there can be joy in accepting God’s love and mercy. Accepting this is changing my life and is helping me find a deeper relationship with Jesus. As long as I continue to keep my faith and trust in Christ, I know that I will be able to face any obstacle that comes my way.

We all know that life is not so easy at times, but it was not meant to be easy and Jesus himself never said it would be. We just have to remember that Jesus is with us every step of the way, just like he promised. And there is nothing that can separate us from Jesus’ love. As St. Paul wrote to the Romans,

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

Amen!

Thoughts about Scriptural Authority: Paul, the Law, and the ELCA

2009-11-02T00:01:00.006-05:00

By: John Page

Recent events in the ELCA[1] have piqued more interest than usual in what this Church actually teaches, revealing the latest manifestation of a contentious question as old as the Christian Church itself. The question is largely asked in terms of the authority of canonical Scripture, and how it functions as “the authoritative source and norm of [the church’s] proclamation, faith, and life”[2], but it really centers on the role that law in Scripture ought to play in the life and practice of Christians. Anyone who has read the Acts of the Apostles or Paul’s Letter to the Galatians knows that we Christians have been here before. And in these two canonical books, the first century church provides us with an apostolic model for both understanding the current contention and for resolving it. They also describe a model which is antithetical to the apostles’ teachings, and which effectively subverts the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul and the Christian Pharisees: Council of Jerusalem

In Acts 15, we are told that some individuals from the church in Jerusalem paid a visit to the church in Antioch in

Syria

, and insisted that the Gentile Christians must be circumcised according to the law of Moses in order to be saved. This ignited dissension within the church, with Paul and Barnabas at odds with the Jerusalem visitors. To resolve the matter, the Christians in Antioch dispatched Paul, Barnabas, and some others to Jerusalem to discuss it with the apostles and elders there.

On their way to Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas visited churches in Phoenicia and Samaria, reporting the conversion of Gentiles and bringing “great joy to all the believers” (Acts 15:3). Similarly, when they arrived in Jerusalem and had been welcomed by the church there, including the apostles and elders, Paul and Barnabas reported to them all that God had done with them concerning the Gentiles. But, as occurred in Antioch, “some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses.” (Acts 15:5)

The leaders of the church in Jerusalem met together to consider all this, and after some debate, Peter stood and declared,

"My brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers. And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will." (Acts 15:6-11)

Then, the whole assembly listened to Paul and Barnabas tell of “the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the Gentiles.” (Acts 15:12) When they had finished, James, the brother of Jesus and perhaps one of the most influential members of the church in Jerusalem, affirmed the witness of Peter, Paul, and Barnabas, concerning the Gentiles, and acknowledged that the prophets themselves had anticipated the inclusion of Gentiles among God’s people. To resolve the present dispute, James proposes something of a compromise, which would allow the Gentiles to forgo circumcision, but otherwise abide by a “lite” version of the law of Moses. The leaders in Jerusalem composed a letter to Antioch which assured the Christians in Antioch that the Jerusalem leaders were not complicit with the earlier visitors who had initiated the dissension, and that the Jerusalem leaders only required that the Gentiles abstain from anything that had been sacrificed to idols and from fornication. (Acts 15:23-29) The letter was well received in Antioch.

It seemed the crisis had been resolved, though Paul’s letter to the Galatians indicates the dissension between Christian Gentiles and Christian Pharisees[3] persisted after the Council of Jerusalem. Before moving on to the epistles, though, consider how Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and the leaders in Jerusalem regard the authority of Scripture in their discernment. The Scripture, in their case, refers to the Law and the Prophets, what we generally regard as the Old Testament. The Christian Pharisees rightly observe that the law - that is Scripture - requires that God’s people be circumcised, and every Jew, including Peter, Paul, and Barnabas, would know this. The Scripture is clear on this point.

Yet, Peter, Paul, and Barnabas insist that this point of Scripture – this clear command from God - may be set aside, so as not to burden Gentile converts. Shall we assume that these three had little or no regard for the authority of Scripture? That would be unlikely.

What I notice is the methodology these three employ to interpret and apply Scripture. Specifically, they appeal to empirical evidence of the Holy Spirit active in the lives of Gentile converts, and they let the evidence of the Holy Spirit inform their understanding of Scripture. The evidence is not just “private revelations” or personal interpretation; on their way to Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas make a point of inviting the churches of Phoenicia and Samaria to discern for themselves what God has done among the Gentiles, without the benefit of circumcision! They invite the Jerusalem church to do the same. Peter also appeals to the empirical evidence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of uncircumcised Gentiles in his speech before the Council of Jerusalem, referring to his earlier experience with Cornelius and the Gentiles in Caesarea (Acts 10:44-48). Their methodology stands in contrast to that of the Christian Pharisees, who require an uncritical interpretation and application of the law in Scripture, without regard to anything the Holy Spirit may be doing – and especially if the Holy Spirit is doing something new and unexpected when judged against the law.

Paul and the Galatians

Even a casual reading of Paul’s letter to the Galatians reveals how very frustrated – even exasperated – Paul was with those who continued to insist on an uncritical application of the law in the life of a believer as a condition for justification before God. He begins with a brief greeting, followed immediately by an indictment against the Galatian Christians: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel” (Gal 1:6). Paul is of course the one who called them in the grace of Christ, and he reminds them of his bona fides by reciting his own abridged autobiography, with particular emphasis on his divine charge to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.[4] But, what is the “different gospel” – which is no gospel at all – to which Paul refers?

It is abundantly clear throughout this letter, that obedience to the law as a requirement for justification before God is a “different gospel” [5] from the gospel Paul first proclaimed to the Galatians. According to Paul, this is the true gospel:

“… we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.” (Gal 2:16)

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.” (Gal 2:19b-21)

As in Acts, the Holy Spirit figures prominently in Paul’s understanding of what God is doing. Notably, obedience to the law has nothing to do with receiving the Holy Spirit, which for both Peter and Paul, confirms God’s justification of the believer (Acts 10:44-47; Acts 15:8-9). Paul is emphatic that the believers received the Holy Spirit by believing the gospel of Jesus Christ, and living “by faith in the Son of God” (Gal 3:2-5). So significant is this point for Paul, that he writes:

“Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” [6] (Gal 3:23-29)

Paul even goes so far as to state that those who rely on works of the law are under a curse (Gal 3:10). If we depend on the law for our justification, we are bound to the entire law; we don’t get to be selective about it, choosing to do “this” while disregarding “that”. And the futility of keeping the entire law dooms us (Gal 4:2-4). Instead, Paul insists that it is through the Holy Spirit, by faith, that we are assured of justification before God (Gal 4:5).

If we have no law to bind us, what governs our conduct? If Christ has freed us from the law by faith, what is the practical consequence of that freedom? Paul argues that we have received Christ’s own freedom; believers have been made God’s children, and “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts” (Gal 4:6). If this is true – if the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, dwells in us – then Christ possesses our lives. As a duck will act like a duck, and a horse like a horse, so Christ will act as Christ – so those possessed by Christ will act as Christ. And to act as Christ is to share God’s love with the whole world, and in so doing, perfectly accomplish the law’s purpose without its curse. “For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Gal 5:14)

Before concluding his letter, Paul contrasts the “works of the flesh” with the “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal 5:16 – 6:10), listing specific examples of each.[7] The examples are by no means exhaustive, and they are also not “new” laws; Paul is not replacing the Law of Moses with the Law of Paul. His entire argument in this letter is adamantly opposed to Christian enslavement to doing works of law – any law! – as the basis for justification before God. Christ will act as Christ, and so will Christians when the Spirit of Christ is in us. Paul’s lists illustrate the point that we know what is – and is not – loving to our neighbor. And we ought to know better than to mock the Spirit of Christ that dwells in us by indulging ourselves at our neighbors’ expense.

The Apostolic Model of St. Paul

In both Acts and Galatians, observable evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in believers’ lives is ample proof for Paul (as well as Peter and Barnabas) that believers are justified before God. Examples of that observable evidence include “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23), as well as “extolling God” (Acts 10:46). Absent from these examples is “obedience to the law”. In fact, Paul could not be clearer that those who require obedience to the law – even one commandment of law – for one’s justification, are themselves under a curse (Gal. 3:10).

Using words like “curse”, “slavery”, “turning to a different gospel”, and “false believers”, Paul refuses any compromise that concedes that obedience to the law has any salvific consequences for believers. To do so would imply that Christ died for nothing (Gal. 2:21). Paul even rejects a partial submission to the law as acceptable, putting him at odds not only with the Christian Pharisees, but with James and the leaders of the Jerusalem church, who proposed a kind of “lite” law for Gentile Christians.[8] If believers maintain that they are bound by any part of the law, they are subject to the entire law – and are therefore doomed (Gal. 5:2-6).

Having been justified by faith, Paul admonishes believers to live by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us. This is extraordinary counsel – and terrifying to some. The reassuring do’s and don’ts of the law are gone, leaving us in the perilous wilderness without a tried and true survival handbook. Instead, we’ve been handed a compass called the Holy Spirit, and told to make our way with confidence. What kind of insane God are we dealing with? (Think of the grumbling Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai.)

But Paul insists we know how to read this compass; the Spirit dwells in the believer, and by that Spirit our faith comes alive in our actions. We will find a depth of understanding and courage that no survival handbook – the collected wisdom and witness of others who’ve gone before us – could ever provide by itself. We will have come to understand what lies at the heart of the handbook – the truth which those who’ve gone before were always trying to reveal, however imperfect their witness or our comprehension may have been – by trusting the compass of the Holy Spirit to guide us. Terrifying stuff! But, it is the way of faith; the Way of Jesus.

And the Way of Jesus bears fruit – the fruit of the Spirit. Paul believed that the fruit of the Spirit was as obvious to believers as was works of flesh (Gal. 5:19-26). Paul was convinced that when we live by the Spirit, we will know how to love our neighbor as ourselves, and perfectly fulfill the law in a way that obedience to the law could never do (Gal. 5:13-15).

Paul’s treatment of the law reveals more broadly his approach to Scripture, and what the authority of Scripture meant to him in practice. He insisted that the Holy Spirit must inform our understanding of Scripture, implicitly and explicitly rejecting the spiritless practices of the Christian Pharisees. The Holy Spirit reveals God’s will in the lives of those in whom the Spirit dwells, and in ways that are broadly visible to believers – not just in personal or esoteric visions. Believers know the Spirit is at work by the fruit of the Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit always reveals God’s love for the world, and our love for our neighbor.

Paul and the ELCA

It seems to me that the current dissension in the ELCA – concerning changes to Ministry Policies and, to some extent, adoption of the social statement Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust – follows a pattern not at all unlike that of the dissension between the Christian Pharisees and Paul et al. in the first century. One party insists that the ELCA is abandoning the ancient witness and authority of Scripture by altering long-held beliefs and practices vis-à-vis same-gender relationships and intimacy. An opposing party insists we take into account the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of gay and lesbian believers, and like Paul, let the Spirit of Christ inform our understanding of Scripture and our practice. The ELCA’s 2009 Assembly attempted a solution similar to that of the Council of Jerusalem, by adopting changes that would fully accept gay and lesbian believers in the life and work of the church (and without putting God to the test by trying to constrain whom the Holy Spirit calls to faith and service), while simultaneously accommodating those whose bound consciences require obedience to the law (through a “local option” mechanism, details of which have yet to be developed and announced).

In the first century, the Christian Pharisees were not satisfied with the Jerusalem compromise, and continued their efforts to require Gentile believers to submit to the law. We see the same development today, with organized efforts to actively attack the Assembly and the ELCA with rhetorical excess and financial retaliation, while aggressively working to force submission to the law throughout the Church. [9] Evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in the lives of gay and lesbian believers has been dismissed as either irrelevant to the question of what the law requires, or as nothing more than evidence of this world’s evil infecting the Church – a risky suggestion, given Jesus’ warning to those who accuse the Holy Spirit of doing evil. (Matthew 12:24-32; Mark 3:22-30)

But, the apostle Paul’s gospel of Jesus Christ also resonates in the Church today. Apostolic Christians believe in the Holy Spirit as more than a cognitive principle, but as the living Spirit of Christ dwelling in believers as much today as in any other century. That Spirit sets us free from bondage to the law, and opens our eyes to perceive what lies at the heart of the law. When we live by the Spirit of Christ, the fruit of the Spirit will follow. And we will know the fruit of the Spirit because it will reveal our love for all people, as God loves all people. The Holy Spirit will inform our understanding of the law and the prophets – our understanding of the Scripture.

Key to Paul’s argument is examples of the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. He appealed to evidence available for all to see, and invited the Christians in Phoenicia, Samaria, Jerusalem, and

Galatia

to look and discern the evidence of Christ’s Spirit in their fellow believers and in themselves. The fruit of the Spirit will be obvious to believers. We are invited to do the same[10], and those of us who have experienced the ministries of pastors in same-gender relationships have seen in them ample evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in extolling God, in offering Christ’s love and peace to all people, and in demonstrating patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, despite the pain inflicted upon them by others’ contempt, false accusations, and outright persecution.

And where the Christian Pharisees saw – and see – doom and gloom, apostolic Christians saw – and see – the Holy Spirit and mission opportunities in abundance.

[1] Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

[2] CONSTITUTIONS, BYLAWS, AND CONTINUING RESOLUTIONS of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in

America

, §2.03.

[3] In Acts, Paul’s adversaries are referred to as Pharisees; in Galatians, Paul refers to them as the “circumcision sect”. It’s unclear whether they are the same “party”, but they clearly maintain identical positions with regard to obedience to the law. Throughout my paper, “Christian Pharisees” refers generally to those who maintain the same position as those with whom Paul contended in Antioch and Jerusalem.

[4] Arguably, Paul’s recollection of events is not exactly identical to Luke’s recollection in Acts. But, common experience suggests that it is not unusual for two people to remember events, and their significance, differently.

[5] In contemporary intra-Christian polemics, it’s not unusual for one party to accuse the other of “turning to a different gospel” as a cheap rhetorical maneuver. But, it’s important to note that Paul is referring specifically to the false teaching that one is justified before God by works of law, as opposed to justification by faith.

[6] Being “Abraham’s offspring”, and therefore heirs to God’s promise to Abraham, was (and is) a significant concern to Christians, which is why obedience to the law was (and is) such a troubling issue in the church.

[7] Beware the temptation to apply pagan Greek dualism (“form” vs. “substance”) to Paul’s contrast between “works of the flesh” and “fruit of the Spirit”. Paul is not speaking of an ontological dualism between flesh and spirit in the human person, which is a pagan idea. Paul is contrasting behavior that is unloving or destructive of our relationships with one another in Christ (works of the flesh), with behavior that is loving toward others and embodies Jesus’ own presence (fruit of the Spirit).

[8] Personally, I sympathize with James’ predicament, and I appreciate his efforts to find a way for Jewish and Gentile Christians to live in harmony with one another in the church. The Jerusalem Council’s compromise seems to have been a practical solution providing a kind of “local option”, but it failed under continued pressure from Christian Pharisees to require circumcision of Gentile believers, which in turn produced Paul’s rigorous theological argument against Christian “enslavement” to the law.

[9] These efforts have been largely coordinated by an organization called Lutheran Coalition for Renewal (Lutheran CORE). Their homepage provides access to information regarding their purpose and efforts: http://www.lutherancore.org/.

[10] In 2007 and 2009, the organization Goodsoil (http://www.goodsoil.org/) published devotional booklets which featured devotions by, and biographies about, gay and lesbian Christian leaders in, or associated with, the ELCA. The booklets are titled A Place Within My Walls (http://www.lcna.org/lcna_news/2007_cwa_apwmw/a_place_within_my_walls.htm) and One Table, Many Blessings (http://www.goodsoil.org/2009DevotionalBooklet.pdf). The biographies in these booklets invite all believers to see and discern evidence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of gay and lesbian Christians.

Red Letter Day

2009-10-31T07:43:00.003-04:00

Sermon for Reformation Sunday, October 25, 2009

by the Rev. Margay Jo Whitlock

Readings

First: Jeremiah 31:31–34

Psalm: Psalm 46

Second: Romans 3:19–28

Gospel: John 8:31–36

Today is a red letter day. A "red letter" day, is literally, a day marked on our Church calendars in red. It's a Holy Day. That’s where the word “holiday” comes from.

Holidays were originally Holy Days.

Today we celebrate Reformation Day. The Church celebrates the Anniversary of the Reformation on October 31, or the Sunday before. And we celebrate All Saint’s Day

on November 1, or the Sunday after.

The word “Halloween” is actually short for All Hallows' Eve. Like Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are the evenings before Christmas Day and New Year Day, respectively, All Hallows’ Eve is the evening before All Hallows’ Day, also known as All Saints Day.

It was on Halloween in 1517, the evening before All Saints Day, that a monk named Martin Luther decided it was time to debate the question of justification by grace through faith. The reason the debate was called on Halloween, October 31, was that the very next day, November 1, All Saints Day, was the Opening of the annual relic and indulgence show, where people would pay good money to see the bones of old saints, and to get pieces of paper claiming to shave off years of time in purgatory.

Martin Luther thought this was terrible, because it misled the people. To sell something that is free was just plain wrong. Forgiveness is free, reminded Martin Luther, due to the fact that it was already bought and paid for – for you – by Jesus' death on the cross. On this point, Luther refused to compromise. And once he got started, he wouldn't back down until he got the whole church to come to an agreement regarding just how it is that our salvation comes about.

In order to reach a consensus, Luther called for a debate. Since there were no blogs, no Twitter, no Facebook pages, not to mention radio or TV… if you wanted to have a debate, you posted your debating points on the door of the church. Luther's topic was about Salvation: Is it something we do, or is it something God does?

How many people do you think came to the debate? Zero, zilch, nada, nobody! No one came in person. No one sent word for about two weeks. And then the next thing you know, the you-know-what hit the you-know-where!

For the next year, they tried to settle the debate by exchanging a new list of debating points. No dice. They tried to settle it by issuing a subpoena for Luther to go to Rome. Afraid of being burned at the stake, Luther looked for another way.

Finally there was a hearing with a Cardinal. Luther refused to back down. At this point, 3 out of every 4 Germans were on Luther's side, although it's hard to know how much support was national pride, and how much support came from Biblical, spiritual reflection. By June of 1519, the whole issue had escalated to the point of requiring a second debate, this time in Leipzig. And in June of 1520, Pope Leo X issued a papal bull (that’s what they called it) ordering all of Martin Luther's works to be burned, and calling for Luther's excommunication, unless he took back everything he had written or said.

Now, back in those days, they had no e-mail or fax machines, and no UPS or Federal Express either, so mail took a lot longer to get delivered than it does today. Therefore, it should not surprise you that Luther wrote something in September of 1520, before he received word regarding his excommunication. This essay, "The Freedom of a Christian" (available online: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3), was Luther's last attempt at reconciliation with Rome, the headquarters of the Worldwide Church. And in this essay, Luther states that “A Christian is a perfectly free lord, subject to none,” while at the same time, “A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant, subject to all.” (There is a band called CAPTIVE FREE, from the Lutheran Youth Encounter that takes its name from this concept.)

Meanwhile, back in the 1520's, bonfires started all across Germany. They weren't burning the fall leaves. They were burning Luther's writings. Well, Luther answered with a bonfire of his own, in which he burned pamphlets attacking his teachings, the Papal Bull threatening to excommunicate him, and several volumes of Cannon Law.

The official excommunication was issued in January of 1521. Subsequently, Luther was ordered to appear before the Diet of Worms by Charles V, the new head of the Holy Roman Empire. Luther again had the opportunity to take back what he had said in his books. Here is what Luther answered:

"Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason-- I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other -- my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen."

On his way back to Wittenberg, Luther was "kidnapped" by some friends. In a move reminiscent of the Federal Witness protection program, Luther was dressed up as a knight, given training in knightly behavior, given a new identity as Knight George, and spirited off to the Wartburg Castle, where he spent the next year or so translating the Bible into German, the language of the people.

Martin Luther never meant to start a controversy, much less a church named after him. Luther only wanted to get the church that he already belonged to, to modify some of its practices, especially practices that were not in keeping with the Gospel. Well, exactly 482 years after nailing the 95 theses (also known as the Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences) to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Martin Luther finally got his way. In 1999, ten years ago, in Augsburg, Germany, the Roman Catholics and the Lutherans -- representatives from the

Vatican

and from the Lutheran World Federation -- signed "The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification." Susan Nagle, one of my colleagues here in the New Jersey Synod who at that time was a member of the Executive Committee of the Lutheran World Federation, was part of the ELCA delegation led by Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson. So was one of my Professors from Seminary, Dr. John H. P. Reumann. Pastor Gladys Moore, who was attending a conference of Black Lutherans in

Germany

was also invited to attend.

Addressing the key article of contention of the Reformation, this document says that we agree that they agree on the doctrine of justification by faith. It's something God does, NOT something we do. As the Bible says in Ephesians 2:8

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God."

Or as it says in our Second Lesson for today:

"For we hold that a person is justified by faith, apart from works prescribed by the law." (Romans 3:28)

Amen.

Welcome!

2009-10-31T00:01:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Beautiful Messenger, the online journal of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, in Rahway, NJ. The mission of this journal is to share God’s love – revealed in the life, teachings, and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth – with one another and with our neighbors by publicly speaking to matters of Christian faith and practice, service to our neighbors, discipleship, and the witness of Scripture. Articles may explore a variety of issues and are expected to offer a diversity of ideas and ruminations, but will always be consistent with our stated mission. The journal is not intended to be a “register” of official positions of this congregation, of the New Jersey Synod, or of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

While free to explore issues, contributors – and those leaving comments – will be expected to exercise that freedom consistent with St. Paul’s understanding of Christian freedom:

“For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Gal 5:13-14)

All that we do, including what we write, should produce the fruit of Christ’s Spirit. And, as St. Paul reminds us, the fruit of the Spirit “is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Gal 5:22-23) This precludes disparaging or maligning individuals, as well as gossip or innuendo. Additionally, this journal will not permit campaigns to disparage or undermine the witness and mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and its affiliated ministries, or of the New Jersey Synod, or of our congregation.

To monitor the content of Beautiful Messenger, and any comments in response to postings, the Congregation Council of Zion appointed an editorial review board consisting of three members of the congregation. The review board will judge submissions to the journal based on compliance with the expectations given above, but will not require that content be in agreement with the board members’ personal views on the issues or topics, or with “official” positions of the ELCA or of this congregation. Comments must be respectful and relevant to the posting to which they reply. Nothing will be published without being reviewed, so comments will be subject to delay between the time of their submission and the time of their publication. The review board will not ordinarily contact commentators if comments are rejected for publication.

As this is a new venture for us, we expect to learn from experience. So, from time to time, you may see changes to the site format and policies, and we welcome suggestions for improvements.

Love God, love your neighbor, tell the world – and Christ’s peace be with you always!