The Larger Church

PurposePoints

Minister’s Musing on Ministry & Misc.

So good to be home!  I want to thank everyone who pitched in during my recent travels.  Special thank you to Jeff Wrigley, our Youth and Children’s Director, who preached his first sermon.  I have heard so many wonderful responses to his sharing of the Good News!

Joseph and I enjoyed the General Assembly of our denomination in Orlando, Florida.  Joseph may not have enjoyed the business sessions that I shared with him as much as he did the evening worship services.  We enjoyed some wonderful singing, preaching and prayer during worship.  My parents joined us for the assembly and succeeded in spoiling Joseph during the event.

I want to commend the larger church to each of you.  Our most frequent and powerful experience of church is typically our congregation.  Church as a gathering of God’s people who love God and serve neighbor is as powerful an experience beyond congregation.  At Area, Regional and General Assemblies, it is profound to gather with Disciples from across the land in thousands to sing the songs of our faith, share at the table of our Lord and to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ.  Through Week of Compassion ministries we serve together with sister congregations to meet the needs of those who suffer locally and globally.   Through the Pentecost special day offering we support the birth of new congregations.  So many are the ways we share ministry beyond the walls and zip codes of our daily lives.  I encourage you to seek ways to engage this experience for it will build your faith in new and exciting ways!

Thank you again for the time and support to attend this year’s General Assembly.  The next General Assembly of our denomination will be in 2015 and in Columbus, Ohio.  Let’ s go together!

New Class

New Class that I am teaching this fall at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Edwardsville, Illinois

"Theological Imaginings"

taught by Dr. Brooks

Join Dr. Brooks in some safe space to explore some sacred questions.  

We will look a variety of viewpoints and have time for questions and reflections.

Four Thursdays in October

same course twice

10:00am and 7:00pm in the parlor

10/3 - How do we know?

(We will wrestle with issues such as authority of scripture, authentic revelation, value of experience, tradition)

10/10 - Who is God?

(A survey of various perspectives of God from Triune to Gnostic and back again)

10/17 - What is Church?

(What did Jesus intend?  What might be essential and non-essential?)

10/24 - How does salvation work?

(Who gets to be saved and where do they go?)

Creative Choices

A remark on my preaching noted that reconciliation has been a theme or thread through several recent sermons.  The power of reconciliation is an image that I have seen bubble up from the Bible passages that I have engaged in my sermons of late.  Indeed, reconciliation is a profoundly creative and constructive force at our finger tips.

Deconstruction is the easy move.  Oh a child’s laughter as we stack the blocks for them to knock down.  Over and over again we play this game.  The feeling of power to impact our surroundings is often found in deconstruction.  The neatly mowed lawn that is a field of grass stunted by the slicing blades of our mower.   Our freedom of speech more often seen as the right to criticize those who lead and those who live next to us.  How easy it would be to trod down this well worn path of lamenting our deconstructive delights.

While deconstruction has its place in our lives and relationships, construction is a more rewarding challenge.  Watching the corn sprout in neat rows, now about half a foot tall in places.  Our home gardens beginning to reveal what we hope will be a great harvest in a few months.  Graduations and weddings that call for celebration this time of year.  Vacations that create memories for a lifetime.  

Reconciliation is a powerful force of creation, far more than forgiveness alone.  To reconcile is a choice.  A choice to be in relationship by overcoming brokenness and difference.  Through this choice we demonstrate a love akin to that Jesus shows to the many he invited back into community.  

From the woman at the well, the woman about to be stoned, the prodigal son, Zaccheaus, the disciples ... the list is nearly endless.  Jesus continually initiates contact with the outcast, downtrodden, and common to bring them into more meaningful relationship with himself and the larger community.  Jesus initiates relationship not to network and climb the ladder of success.  Rather Jesus is counting success by lifting up the other into a life of abundant joy.

When we sing that they shall know us by our love, we sing of the choice to be a reconciling people.  If you want a challenge that will provide dividends today and for days to come, chose to reconcile.  In small ways or large, it is a choice to construct a better future.  Who did not show up to Thanksgiving dinner last year that you might chose to include this coming fall?  Single Dad with feisty child could be given the sport in front of you in the check-out line.  To engage in road rage or to ignore the distracted driver who just cut you off?  Kudos to you who chose well to share the love already given you.

Fate v Choice

After an invigorating conversation with a dear friend, I want to reflect upon these competing narratives in our lives.

Fate being the vision of life determined.  Choice is our freewill.

Fate is so tempting and tasty.  With fate we have such magic to enjoy.  Romantically our lives sparkle with love predetermined.  Once we discover the “one” for us, we are never asked to change because it was fated that we fall into this relationship.  If the “other” does not live up to our expectations, then they are NOT the one because they do not fit fate.  Fate sets us free of responsibility in romance, career, or well anything.  Of course fate wants the best for us (sarcastically stated).  If it causes us pain, it is ill-fated.  Life is a fairy tale.  If the story does not read correctly, we blame fate or those who have lead us astray.  Maybe, we own that we missed fates call.  Bottom line, fate leaves us powerless to react and weak to enjoy.  Fate is not us created in God’s image.

Choice is truly more free.  While fate frees us from responsibility, choice empowers us to engage.  God has chosen us, as we know best through the life / death / resurrection of Jesus.  Another friend of mine named for me the power of adopted families for they are families of choice.  What if we woke, every day, next to a person that chose us?  No fate, their choice is the demonstration of love that inspires us ... frees us.  Teacher shielding student is choice.  The magic is the choice.  Rather than a static love that never grows, chosen love is like spiritual growth.   Unless a pattern it becomes, our brokenness is merely an opportunity of choice to love us through the healing, transformation, rehabilitation, recovery.  So often in weddings I pray, may they know the blessing of forgiveness undeserved.  Choice is the sparkle given us by the ONE who created us.  

Choice a power so strong to destruct or construct.  

Choice the power so strong we seek to deny it in ourselves and those we love so tempting is fate in our reality.

Relationships are not fated.  Relationships are chosen and maintained.  A mentor once named for me the power of being present.  It is one thing to say we agree or affirm.  It is an even more powerful thing to show up.  

What impact might be if you chose another, daily, for a lifetime?  Could the influence of your choice make better their daily being?  Would not that be worth your investment?

If God created us in God’s image ... If we seek God’s intercession in our lives and the lives of those we love ... if Jesus tells us that all God’s children are our neighbor ... If Jesus tells us to love our neighbor ... what is our choice?

C Love

Why do we offer diamonds on rings of engagement?  Love is far more priceless and organic.  Though both share a common experience of expressing great beauty through the stress of high pressure, Love is more than that.  Yes, both may begin as a lump of coal only to become years later the crystalline celebration.  However, diamonds with their 4 “c”s never match the consistency and creative, compassion and challenge of love.

Love is a challenge.  A marathon is a challenge against distance and time, both of which wait for our arrival and never step forward to kick us in the gut.  Sometimes, love is less kind.  Sometimes love kicks us in the gut and then drags us through the marathon, unwilling participants we are.

Love is compassion.  Those who share love share deep compassion for others who share love.  The scarlet letter “L” is the symbol of a club.  Regardless of the truth “better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”, those who love share a kindred bond with those similarly afflicted.  When true, dost any other cure so mend brokenness?  

Love is creative.  Let me count the ways I love thee?  Let me count the ways I have loved, been loved, raced from and stumbled toward love.  When glimpsed the loved have I, numerous are the rationalizations I have that it is real.  Face to Face with the other, obstacles melt in my ability to hug even a cactus.

Love is consistency.  Are the mistakes of anything else so easily forgotten or more often ignored?    Classic are the stories of love in its many phases for consistent is the experience.  As unique as we want to be, claim to be, try to be - when sharing the story of our love, smiles contagious greet our telling.

Comprehensive is not this tale.  Love far more complex than to be caught by any caricature.  Aside, unlike a diamond readily enumerated from price to carrot, Love’s elusive nature continues to compel us to communal embrace and curled toes.

Happy Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Anniversary, Wedding Announcement, and the cacophony of celebrations of love . . .

Identity: Profound Power

Identity: Profound Power Found

The bombings in Boston in 2013 forced upon us scenes both horrific and heroic.  The loss of life and limb were up against the acts of compassion and justice.

In the face of tragedy, it was stark our need to identify the suspects.  Two methods were note worthy.

One was “crowd sourcing” where the authorities asked the “crowd” (you and I) for our data (video, cell phone pics, ATM images, traffic cam takes).  Applying thousands of people hours, the authorities identified suspect images.  These images were given to the “crowd” with the question “do you know them?”  We gave our response and the suspects were initially identified and we all felt a modicum better.

Second was the curiosity of an individual.  When the all clear was sounded in his neighborhood, a sole person crept from his house to explore and discovered a blood stain on his boat.  His curiosity led him to lift the tarp and discover the 2nd suspect.

Crowd sourcing and individual curiosity are amazing methods of discovery!

To the lectionary scripture text of today - John 10:22-30.

Jesus puts forward that those who follow know his identity / voice, and those who do not follow do not know his voice / identity.

To the point . . .

One way of knowing Jesus is crowd sourcing.  There are times and seasons when we are deaf to Jesus’ voice and blind to God’s appearance.  In those moments, we are invited to crowd source our brothers and sisters of faith, asking them if they have heard or have seen the ONE we follow.  To be in God’s flock is to have a host of angelic ones who can point the way, give glimpse to the God we crave.

Another is the curious individual who leaves the pew and sanctuary to quest for the risen savior.  The stories that inspire us most ... youth returning from church camp or mission trip, young adults reflecting upon habitat builds, ancestors sharing the faith that stands them well.  Jesus suggests, “we will believe when we do.”  Those who get up and follow will find.  

I would love to expound upon the character of the one we follow.  Jesus, our risen lord, is beyond our hope and imagining.  For the sake of space, I want to close by encouraging us to be curious individuals who look to the crowd when we are weak.  Let us journey well with our brothers and sisters of faith.

Spark of Community

I like movie trailers.  Maybe it is because I don’t have the time or money to see all the movies I find interesting.  Maybe it is because watching a movie trailer is a quick break while working at my desk at the office or home.

“The Purge” will be coming out on Memorial Day weekend, starring Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Adelaide Kane, Max Burkholder.   The premise is that our nation has been reborn with 1% unemployment and all time low crime rate because one night per year every crime is legal.  One night a year the emergency services of our nation are suspended, including police and hospitals.  All crimes, including murder, are legal for 12 hours.

What a fascinating idea.  Would not we be more kind to our neighbor if we knew that there was an annual big trash pick up day for our bent up anger?  Would not we be more generous to our co-worker, fellow commuter, stranger homeless person we pass on the way to church - if we knew that one night a year all those people could track us down and harm us with no consequences?  I assume these are the questions of the movie rather than it being merely a foil for another horror flick.

Upon reflection, this is simply the opposite ethic of the gospel.  The movie seems to purport an ethic of do unto others so they won’t do unto you.  The golden rule is to treat each others as you wish to be treated.

Rather than leverage the lowest common denominator, the base immorality - the gospel of Jesus Christ reaches to the depth of our created being for that spark of divinity glowing within all God’s children.

Contrast another movie theme ... that of Lord of the Rings and the relationship of Frodo and Gollum.  How often does the faithful Sam question Frodo’s kindness toward the creature Gollum?  Sam knows the obsession in Gollum’s twisted being.  Frodo’s response is innocent, naive, and gospel-like.  Frodo is kind to Gollum because Frodo sees his own brokenness (to a different degree) in the brokenness of Gollum.  If Gollum is un-lovable, un-redeemable, irreconcilable, beyond salvation - then so is Frodo.  

I hope that “The Purge” is at least in part a critique or reflection upon our experience of community.  If it is not, I recommend a different read ... Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.