Changed By Pain

Recognizing the necessity for suffering I have tried to make of it a virtue. If only to save myself from bitterness, I have attempted to see my personal ordeals as an opportunity to transform myself and heal the people . . . . I have lived these last few years with the conviction that unearned suffering is redemptive. Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope, p. 41

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1

This week it occurred to me that the transforming work of God happens in our lives when we aren't comfortable. Perhaps you've noticed that times when you have felt most uncomfortable, least self-sufficient, and even powerless, you have been most open to change and trust in God.

One of my sisters in Christ moved away this week to be with her daughter in Tennessee. I met her 13 years ago at Church. Over the years she grew to know God's love and saving grace through worship and studying the scripture. She had good friends and a supportive family. She was happy.

But God must have been messing with her because not long after I met her she made a decision to do something pretty uncomfortable. She became an advocate for homeless families in central Florida and went out recruiting other pastors and churches to form what would become the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Central Florida (a network of churches to help homeless families find dignity, get employment and back into a home).

What makes her decision even more surprising is that she was a retired nurse and had never stood in front of pastors and churches to make speeches before. That was really hard for her, made her really uncomfortable. But as it turns out, she wasn't the first person to ever find in her personal ordeals an opportunity to transform herself and heal the people.

Apparently this is the way God has chosen to transform the world . . . through a cross. God's desire isn't to serve us as a kind of divine genie who grants our wishes if we're good enough. God looks at us in love and longs to make us new. God sees for us a new reality which we aren't capable of seeing apart from sharing in the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. This is what leads Christians to say things like this:

But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed.
1 Peter 4:13

It took a long time for the Interfaith Hospitality Network to gain momentum and get started. There were days when it looked like it might not happen. But even if it hadn't, Shirley was being changed, deepening her trust of God and concern for the poor. Her discomfort had revealed God's glory.

In what ways might God be using your discomfort or inviting you into it in order to transform you?

How have you noticed the way God uses discomfort to bring transformation?

Keeping Time

In his book, Everyday Matters, Dr. L. Gregory Jones wrote an essay titled, “HallowThanksMas.” It caught my attention today as we find ourselves right in the middle of “HallowThanksMas.” Dr. Jones writes, “HallowThanksMas is that season that starts the last week of October and extends until Christmas Day. Retailers have Christmas decorations up in mid-October, and then the materialistic press to buy more and more sets in. Throughout this season, adults become frenetic, anxious and – all too often – depressed.”

Well, in my family growing up, I remember enjoying this time of year. For Halloween we would make homemade costumes, usually coordinated with my sisters. We’d walk the neighborhood with my dad, collecting some candy and “trick or treat for UNICEF.” Leading up to Thanksgiving we would revisit the history of “The Pilgrims.” It always seemed pretty cool when the boats pulled up on the shores of Plymouth Rock the Native Americans (I knew them as Indians) were thrilled and shared a big meal together with these strange new people from another world. Seemed to me like the first “pot luck” dinner. Then around that time we would flip through the pages of the Sears Roebuck “Wish Book.” It was full of awesome toys, and my sisters and I would make our lists of wishes for Christmas.

Into the middle of this time of year I would hear another story. It was a story told by my church and it included an evergreen wreath with five candles. I learned at that it was called an Advent Wreath. The best I recall, this Advent Wreath was like a countdown to Jesus birthday. I could not wait until we lit the big white candle in the middle so I could finally open my Christmas presents! Jesus’ birthday was awesome because I got toys.

I liked “HallowThanksMas” as a kid. But as I grew older I began to feel less thrilled with this season. For some reason I’d get through it and feel more hollow than holy, more tense than thankful, and I started to wonder if Jesus was really pleased with His own birthday.

Over the years, I have responded to this discontentment with “HallowThanksMas” by choosing to keep time using the Advent Wreath. As I’ve become more serious about observing Advent I was surprised to learn that it is far more than a countdown to Jesus’ birthday. Advent is a helpful practice for resisting all the things I don’t like about “HallowThanksMas.” Advent teaches us patience, the gift of waiting. It morphs self-gratification into self-giving. It opens up new hope for the world’s future by pondering the past. It invites us to marvel at the wisdom of a God who would choose to restore the world through a child. Advent surprises us with the joy of knowing that our ways are not God’s ways, and the grace to know that God’s way will prevail.

The gift of keeping time with Advent has the capacity to transform “HallowThanksMas.” I don’t suspect it will return us to the way we thought about it as children (if those happen to be good memories for you). I do believe it will make us more holy, thankful and full of wonder. If that sounds like something you’d like, then I encourage you to use Advent to keep time starting the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Attend worship during this season if you don’t already and try using an Advent Devotional book during the week. We are using this one produced by Zoe Ministry in my church.

Blessed Advent!

Exploitation and Nurture - Earth Day Thoughts

I've begun to discover for myself someone who has been around much longer than me. No, not Jesus, although that applies. I'm talking about Wendell Berry, author from Kentucky. He's one of those people I'd heard quoted at various times over the years and so I recently decided to read a collection of his essays in a book called "The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry."

Berry is a man of faith who understands that the salvation God has brought the world in Jesus Christ is far more than the promise of a trip to heaven when we die. This kind of "soul disconnected from a body promise of eternal bliss" is pretty much the kind of salvation that I grew up expecting out of my faith in Jesus. That, plus doing good the best you can in this life because God loves you, is what I'd say being a Christian is all about.

Berry is one of those people whose writing is re-framing the way I understand God's saving work in Jesus Christ. His work is helping me to see how God's salvation involves reconnecting people to one another and the creation God made good. He sheds new light on Paul's declaration in 2Corinthians 5:17 "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!"

In his essay, "The Unsettling of America" Berry writes about the difference between "exploitation and nurture." Reading about those two things makes me imagine the "old" which is passing away and the "new" which Christ has and continues to bring about. I think this goes way beyond "Life might suck now but it will all be well after we die and escape this God-forsaken earth." It is a hope that makes my heart beat faster. In many ways, it is why I continue to be a follower of Jesus and have reason to say everyday ought to be "Earth Day."

Here is an excerpt from that essay by Wendell Berry:
"Let me outline as briefly as i can what seem to me the characteristics of these opposite kinds of mind [exploitation and nurture]. I conceive a strip miner to be a model exploiter, and as a model nurturer I take the old-fashioned idea or ideal of a farmer. The exploiter is a specialist, an expert; the nurturer is not. The standard of the exploiter is efficiency; the standard of the nurturer is care. The exploiter's goal is money, profit; the nurturer's goal is health - his land's health, his own, his family's, his community's, his country's. Whereas the exploiter asks of a piece of land only how much and how quickly it can be made to produce, the nurturer asks a question that is much more complex and difficult: What is its carrying capacity? (That is: How much can be taken from it without diminishing it? What can it produce dependably for an indefinate time?) the exploiter wishes to earn as much as possible by as little work as possible; the nurturer expects, certainly, to have a decent living wage from his work, but his characteristic wish is to work as well as possible. The competence of the exploiter is in organization; that of the nurturer is in order - a human order, that is, that accommodates itself both to other order and to mystery. The exploiter typically serves an institution or organization; the nurturer serves land, household, community, place. The exploiter thinks in terms of numbers, quantities, 'hard facts'; the nurturer in terms of character, condition, quality, kind."

I recognize the exploiter in the mirror and ask God to save me from this old self.

Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.

On January 19 we are invited to remember and celebrate the life and witness of a brother in Christ - Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was and is an easily quotable man. As I was looking for a particular quote from him today I ran across many others that inspired me or made me think more deeply. I share them here with you in remembrance and celebration.

Great Quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

A riot is the language of the unheard.

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

God's Future in the Present

I preached a series of sermons at my church during Advent 2008 entitled "God's Future in the Present." The focus of the series was on the church's mission to embody God's future reign made visible in Christ right here and now. My friend and college, Rev. Steve Price, wrote an inspired poem that he shared with his church, Harvest United Methodist Church, on Sunday December 21. I thought this poem captured the heart of what I was trying to say during those 4 weeks of sermons. He gave me permission to share it here.

“Springing Up”
by Steven M. PriceAdvent 2008

Beneath life’s crushing load, he sits
by the side of the road.
No one notices
but let me tell you who this is.

Man broken, to whom words are rarely spoken.
Had the house, the car, the kids, the wife.
All the pieces of what they call
the good life, but then. . .downsized.

No longer in the game.
Credit sinking in his name.
He couldn’t stand the shame.
Couldn’t stand. . .could not stand.

So he drank himself into this state.
No friends, no family left to participate
in his life, his story.
Does anyone care about his fate?

She had no chance.
Some are quick to criticize.
Say that she should realize
she can’t afford to feed those three.
But they don’t know. Can’t see
the way she had to go.

Daddy’s a dealer, dead when she was two.
Momma sold herself just to make it through.
Uneducated, she longs to be liberated,
but how? Up at daybreak, her heart aches
as she walks out the door, knowing
for an hour more her babies will be alone.

School bus comes long after she’s gone
to work--seven to three, then five to eleven,
just to be able to put food on the table
and pay the rent on a place
where nights are dangerously spent.

Some days she wonders if they’d be better
off with someone else. But memory runs deep.
And this one promise she WILL keep.
She will not abandon, will not let them go.
So they will know. . .so they will know
what she never knew. They are loved.

Images flood the screen.
Pictures we’ve all seen.
Children starving, mosquitoes swarming,
bellies distended. . .some are offended
that we have to look at this in the middle of our tv bliss.

But. . .there is no ER where they live,
and they have no Law and Order in their land.
And no one, it seems, will come to give
them an Extreme Home Makeover.

Quick. Change the channel. Find another show.
‘Cause I don’t want to know, don’t want to see
how much they hurt, ‘cause if it touches me. . .
I’d have to change.

People oppressed, lives distressed.
They struggle, they grope—they see no hope.
O dark night, where is the LIGHT
that will come. Come for them. Come for us.

Yahweh cries out, “ENOUGH!”
I am coming. I am coming. I am coming.
I. . .see your shame.
I. . .feel your hurt.
I. . .touch your sadness.
I. . .know your pain.

And I WILL heal. WILL feed. WILL free. WILL clothe.
WILL comfort. WILL serve. WILL save. WILL love.
You.

And Jesus comes. Emmanuel.
God with us. God with skin.
How can this be? He is our kin.
Joy of heaven come down to earth,
clothed in flesh he validates our worth.
Your worth. My worth. Their worth.

He rescues them. He restores them.
He raises them. He renews them.
And they know. They are loved.

Before he goes he turns to us and says, “Don’t forget. . .”
He knows that we are weak and yet
he says, “You.”

Open up your ears and listen.
May it be on earth as it is in heaven.

As it is. Not maybe. Not will be. Not could be.
Not someday. Not possibly. Not later. Not tomorrow.
Now. Now is the time to end the sorrow.

So you. Yes, you.
Now you must care. Now you must go.
You must show the love they need to know.

Bind up the broken hearted, he says. Continue the work I started.
This is the greatest story—your life revealing God’s glory.

No more wandering. No more waiting.
No time for pondering. No hesitating.

NOW.

This is the day. Mercy pouring.
This is the day. Justice soaring.
This is the day. Righteousness springing.
This is the day. Angels singing.
Because You. I. We.
Have seen. Have heard. Have known. Have learned.
And we will follow.

Come. Let us walk in life.

Good News or Bad News?

"Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God, saying, "Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation." Luke 2:28-30

"When King Herod heard this [about Jesus' birth], he was frightened, and all Jersualem with him." Matthew 2:3

Have you ever noticed that “good news” is relative? Birth announcements are like that. It was such good news when my sister and her husband announced to us that they were expecting a baby boy who was born on December 1. But there was mixed emotion when my friend in high school announced that she was pregnant. She and her boyfriend had gone too far.

The "good news" of Jesus' birth was relative too.

For Simeon, the news of Jesus’ birth was the fulfillment of a lifetime of longing. The news of Jesus’ birth was so good for Simeon that he basically says, “Now I can die a happy man!” The one thing he had been waiting for most in life had occurred in the birth of Jesus.

On the other hand we have King Herod, perhaps one of those that Simeon had in mind when he said, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed.” Matthew says that when Herod heard that the “king of the Jews” had been born “he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him.”

What makes the “good news” of Jesus so joyful for some and so terrifying for others?
One reason is power.

Those with power, who like the world the way it is, can find Jesus threatening. Those with no power, whose lives are marked by a longing for justice, often find Jesus the source of all they hope for.

In spite of the way preachers today sometimes spin Jesus, he did not come to earth in order to help make people’s lives better. Sure, many lives have been made whole by Jesus. What I mean is that Jesus did not come to earth in order to help people achieve their personal dreams. Jesus isn't our personal genie. Jesus did not come to earth in order to help people realize their best life now. Jesus came in order to bring God’s Kingdom and set the world in alignment with the rule of God in the world. Jesus work might better be described as rescuing people from the destruction which comes as we persue our own dreams rather than God's dreams.

As a result, those who enjoy life pretty well right now because of their place of power or privilege might struggle to understand Jesus as “good news.” Herod is a case in point, but so am I and a lot of my friends who have grown up in a place of privilege and power.

I am aware of the fact that I live a life where I have often had the privilege and power to call the shots. People pay attention to me. People listen to me. People will often assume I’m in charge instead of others. I have never wondered where my next meal would come from. As a kid I never wondered IF I could be employed when I grew up. It was only a matter of whatever I made my mind up to do. I never wondered IF I could go to college or graduate school or even be the president of the United States.

What is disturbing to me is that people like me in the Bible are the ones who are more threatened by Jesus than joyful [see Herod, the Pharisees and the Rich Young Ruler]. It is strange but true. By virtue of my place in life it is more difficult for me to pay attention to Jesus; listen to Jesus; trust that Jesus is in charge; depend on Jesus for bread; look to Jesus for employment; and seek Jesus’ direction about education and vocation. I just have so many other attractive options than Jesus.

What we find in Simeon is an invitation to remember where true power and privilege lay. Power lies in a manger. Power is revealed in all it's glory on a cross. And the power to transform people like me and Herod is found ultimately in the resurrection of Jesus.

That is not just good news for Simeon. That's good news for everybody.

The Gift of God's Presence in an Irish Pub

I attended a conference on preaching recently. The conference was full of listening and learning about preaching that connects with people in our community. We were given a lot to think about and do. And at the end of a long day we had a free evening to do whatever we wanted. I wanted to catch up with Roy, a good friend at the conference who I only get to see about three times a year. We looked for a nearby restaurant to go hang out and get a bite to eat. The only place we found was a nearby Irish Pub.

Of the two of us, Roy looks much more like a regular at pubs. He is the most tattooed United Methodist pastor that I know and sports long hair with a goatee . In spite of being at the preaching conference I wasn’t interested in “connecting with my community” or being a “detective for divinity” in the pub that night. I just wanted to relax and enjoy some time catching up with my friend. I guess I can blame this on my tattooed, long-haired, goateed, Duke University-Tshirt-wearing friend, but somehow we attracted the attention of three lawyers at the pub. It was then that God surprised us with a gift.

The conversation started out innocently enough. One lawyer asked, “What year did you graduate from Duke? Do you remember when Duke played Carolina in basketball that year?” And then another asked, “What did you study?” We said, “We went to the Divinity School. We’re United Methodist Pastors.” I thought that would be the end of our conversation, but it only seemed to intrigue them more.

The edited version of their next question was, “Why in the world do you do what you do?” The question was genuine, and before I knew it Roy and I were sitting in an Irish Pub sharing with three lawyers about how God had moved us to order our lives around Jesus Christ and his will.

One of the guys, Bob, seemed particularly intrigued with our stories and reflected on his own life saying, “Faith is not a part of my life at all right now. I’d like it to be, but I’m not even sure how to do that or even what that would mean.” Among other things Bob shared about how he had lost faith in the church with all its rules and hypocrisy, but still had a longing to live in a way that made this world a better place.

As our conversation continued I kept thinking, “Wow! I didn’t see this coming.” God was present in that Irish pub – a holy moment in such an unsuspecting place. Feels like the first Christmas!

There were no Christmas songs playing. Some guy was strumming a guitar over in the corner. There were no angel choirs, shepherds, or animals, and I'm not sure there was a wise man in the place. But it felt like Christmas because the gift of God was present. God was present in our openness with one another, the soul stirring questions that were asked and the vulnerability with which each one shared about his experience of pain and hope.

The Bible tells us that at the first Christmas God made himself vulnerable and became present among us in a child named Jesus. None of the religious people of the day had seen this coming. But there was God right there in the animal feeding trough outside Bethlehem – a holy moment in such an unsuspecting place. It was Christmas.

It is the surprising gift of God in Jesus that we remember at Christmas. The Advent theme at my church this year is “God’s Future in the Present.” That reminds us that God’s future is present now through the gift of Jesus. We don’t need to wait until we die to experience God’s presence. Apparently God is interested in meeting people in odd places like Irish Pubs, smelly stables and wherever you happen to be right now.

Jesus is a gift we are invited to receive right now. As we receive the gift of Christ we begin to participate in God’s future right now – the restoration of all creation. Indeed, this world can be a better place and God’s purpose in Christ is to make it so. Through the gift of Christ we can imagine and live into God’s promised future of love, joy and peace.

My prayer for you this Advent and Christmas is that you receive this gift.