Dear Easter Preachers

Dear Easter Preachers,

Please do not give the top 5 scientific/rational reasons why the resurrection is an undeniable historic fact in your sermons tomorrow. Rather, inspire those gathered to live into the new reality of resurrection life. We can only know the resurrection if we attempt to experience it in our lives. We can do this by giving without receiving, by pursuing peace without violence, by pardoning sin, by sacrificing our privilege, and by offering hope in the face of evil.

Mental acknowledgment of the historicity of the resurrection is not faith nor faithfulness. Offering forgiveness in the face of violence is.

Jesus did not have to die

Today is Good Friday, the day we remember the crucifixion of Jesus. I’ve come to see the death of Jesus not as something God required, but rather as a result of Jesus living a faithful life.

Jesus died because he opposed evil and identified with the margins of society. Jesus did not die to appease an angry God.

So should we call today Good Friday? I think not, there is nothing good about an unnecessary death.

Why Emergent?

I wrote the following for an online Episcopal Magazine.  Enjoy.

Reflections on the journey: From a Post-Evangelical, Emergent, Episcopalian

The conversation usually goes something like this:

Inquisitive Person: “So, what is the emergent church?”

Me: “Well, technically there is no emergent church.”

Inquisitive Person: (Blank stare)

Me: “It’s more of a conversation than a church.”

Inquisitive Person: (Continued blank stare)

The conversation started for me during college while I was on a mission trip in East Africa.  I was on the island of Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania living with a Christian pastor, preaching in the local church, and participating in door-to-door evangelism throughout the island.  More than a million people populate Zanzibar and at least ninety nine percent of the population is Muslim. It seems an obvious statement when looking at the situation from a certain perspective to say that Zanzibar had not yet been reached by the gospel.  This opportunity was rather significant for me.  I had grown up in the Christian & Missionary Alliance, an evangelical church, where my Christian formation involved sharing the gospel with all people.  I remember a youth rally I attended where a guest speaker told us that 166,000 people die everyday without knowing who Jesus is, and that it was up to us to go into the entire world in order to share the good news of Jesus.  I took that challenge to heart and I committed my life to sharing the gospel with the world.  Three years later there I was doing just that: sharing the gospel with people who had never heard it before. The mission was not going very well.  People were not receptive to our message and as far as I could tell, I could not foresee their minds changing anytime soon.

The Church in Post-Christian America

Much has been said about the recent article in the Christian Science Monitor, The Coming Evangelical Collapse.  Now, it isn’t just evangelicals who are in trouble, but Mainline Protestant denominations find themselves in similar circumstances. In coming years, many churches will be forced to close shop because of dwindling attendance . These churches will be forced to close because they will no longer be able to afford the cost of their buildings or their staff. One solution to this new scenario is something that Church of the Apostles, the church I’m currently working at, is doing quite well: Open the building to the community.

COTA meets at the Fremont Abbey, a building that we are currently in the process of buying from the Lutheran Church.  The building for most of its life was St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.  After St. Paul’s closed down, the building was used as a homeless shelter for a few years, and then 3 years ago, COTA moved in.  Instead of slapping our name up on the building, and making the building a “church”, the COTA community decided that this building was going to be for all of the Fremont Community.  And they thought the best way to serve the Fremont Community was to make the building a place for the arts.  Because of this the Fremont Abbey is home to two separate non-profits: Church of the Apostles and the Fremont Abbey Arts Center. Because of the Arts Center, the Fremont Abbey is occupied 7 days a week with a music school, dance lessons, a jazz band, concerts, mediation weekends, kids art classes, etc, etc…  And because our building is occupied 7 days a week, supporting (and paying for) the building does not fall entirely upon the church congregation.

I need to make something very clear, the Art Center does not exist as a bait and switch (i.e. “Let’s get people in the building so we can convert them”).  The Art Center is its own non-profit that lives in the Fremont Abbey.  And secondly, the Arts Center does not exist to support the mission of the church.  The Arts Center exists because the community of Fremont values the arts, and because so many people in the community volunteer their time, expertise and money to support the arts in Fremont and in the Fremont Abbey.

Now what is taking place in the Fremont Abbey is a mutually beneficial relationship between a church and a community arts center.  Neither of the missions are more important than the other, and we try and treat each other that way.  And because of this relationship we can both continue to exist, own property, and pay a staff in a very expensive urban area.

If the church wants to continue to have buildings and paid staff, but can’t attract large enough numbers to pay for these things it will have to figure out ways to open up their buildings to their neighbors.  And it will need to do this in a mutually beneficial way, avoiding a patronizing, bait and switch relationship.

Wandering

For Lent at COTA this year a man in our parish is teaching a class on prayer entitled Great Arguments with God.  Last night we examined Jacob’s all night wrestling match with God.  To aid us in this exploratation we read from Frederick Beuchner’s The Son of Laughter.  In it Beuchner retells Jacob’s encounter with God in dramatic fashion.  What Beuchner reveals in his retelling is how Jacob really didn’t know who he was wrestling with or even why he was wrestling until the night was over.  Jacob’s confusion struck a cord with me, especially as we reflected upon prayer and fighting with God. 

It is easy to be energized by an argument or fight if one knows what it is they are fighting for.  We see this in other scriptural accounts where people argued with God because God was clearly in the wrong, or it was quite obvious that God needed to do something (i.e. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?). But what about when you are striving with God or life, or whatever, but you really don’t know why.  

I find this scenario more common for my own spiritual journey.  Wrestling in the dark with the unknown, wandering through the desert with no destination.  I’m told there is a promise, or blessing out there somewhere, but the fact that it is out there, fails to make the present any clearer.

Why Episcopal? Part V – Ash Wednesday Edition

The first Ash Wednesday service I attended was actually in an Evangelical Church a few years ago.  To this day I can still remember the feeling of the ash cross on my forehead and the words of the pastor that came with it: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  As I drove away from the service that night with the weight of the cross bearing upon my skin I was forced into introspection about my life, my mortality, and how it is in my humanity that I know God.  Out of all the worship services that I participated in at that church for a year and half, the Ash Wednesday service stands out to me most clearly.  

I remember it because the worship service engaged not just my intellect, but my senses.  The sanctuary was darkened, the mood was solemn, and then by going forward and feeling the touch of the pastor on my forehead, the harshness of the ash, and then continuing to feel the weight of the cross: all of me was caught up in an experience of God, worship, and contemplation.  

I participate in a liturgical church because my whole self is engaged in worship.  And tonight as my priest marks my head with the sign of the cross I hope that once again I am brought to a place of experience of God, worship and contemplation.

Why Episcopal? Part IV – Word and Sacrament

In an Episcopal worship service the Word and the Sacrament are of equal importance.  This is acted out liturgically in numerous ways depending upon the parish.  At St. Paul’s the service of the Word ends with the Gospel text being processed to the middle of the sanctuary and held high for everyone to see, while it processes we all chant “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.”  The text is then announced by the reader of the gospel (either an ordained deacon or priest): “The Holy Gospel according to…”  As this is announced we in the congregation cross our forehead, our lips, and our hearts, so that we receive the words of Christ in our minds and in our hearts and we respond with our wills (mouth).  The congregation then responds in unison “Glory to you Lord Christ.”  The gospel text is then read by the ordained clergy with hands lifted high in blessing.  Following the reading, the deacon or priest says the “The Gospel of our Lord.”  The congregation responds with “Praise to you Lord Christ.”  Following the reading of the Gospel a homily is offered; typically lasting about 12 minutes.  

COTA Reverb 2/14/09

I gave the reverb at Church of the Apostles this past Saturday. A reverb is what we call a sermon at COTA, its short for reverberation, which means that the reverb is one person’s reflection upon how a passage of scripture has impacted them.  We use the Lectionary at COTA so I did not choose this passage of scripture myself.  

For those of you hold to more conservative theological views, there will be content in my sermon that I’m quite positive you will disagree with.  I encourage you to try and listen to what I have to say, not so you can agree with me, but that you might develop the ability to listen to the “other”.  

 

 

Mark 1:40-45  

40 A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.”  41 Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!”  42 Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.  43 After sternly warning him he sent him away at once,  44 saying to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”  45 But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter. 

The Story of the Unlikely Evangelist 

Our country recently went through a very long and intense political process.  The men and women who were running for our nation’s highest political office where all put under the severest inspection.  And we as a society can’t get enough of it.  We want to know everything from their attendance records as third graders to what kind of underwear they put on.  Now many of the things that are revealed through this vetting process are not game changers, if they smoked a little pot in college, it probably isn’t going to disqualify them from the race.  However, there are somethings that can pose a big threat to a candidate’s victory: associations.  Who is this person friends with?  What circles did they run in?  And who is endorsing this candidate?  This of course was a big issue for our current president Barack Obama, wither it was Reverend Wright or Bill Ayers.  The strategy for some was to disqualify Obama because he has associating with these “extreme” people.  These anti-American people.  Now sadly, with our consumer driven media, our country failed to have an intelligent conversation about these associations.  It was far too easy to stereo-type people and evoke fear, then it was to listen and try and understand who people are.  

I think Jesus found himself in a similar predicament in today’s gospel story.  Jesus had just begun his ministry on earth, he was God enfleshed, sent to earth to be the Messiah to the Jews and salvation to the Gentiles.  Now considering how prophets have often fared in the past, Jesus must have known that this was not going to be an easy nor a safe task.  He was going to have to confront the religious and political establishments of his day.  Neither of whom had a good track record of paying attention to the will of God: which is to practice radical love and justice.  Nonetheless Jesus begins his mission, and in Mark’s account of it, it has only just begun when Jesus is confronted with a dilemma: a leprous man begging for cleansing.  

166,000

 I have been reflecting on my spiritual journey quite a bit during the last few weeks due to conversations at my new job as well as through reflecting and sharing at a mutual discernment group that I am participating in.  So as I have shared my story and reflected upon where I have been the number 166,000 continues to come up.  Yes, 166,000, I’m guessing an insignificant number to you, is actually a very important figure in regards to my spiritual journey.  

 When I was in high school I participated in a weekend church retreat centered around missions.  At the end of the weekend the speaker was presenting his final appeal to us young people to take Jesus’ great commission seriously.  In his appeal he unrolled a very long scroll of paper with thousands of black vertical lines: one, two, three, four, and then a horizontal dash through the middle, five.  In total there were 166,000 black lines.  Once the scroll was unrolled the speaker told us that each one of these lines represents a person who will die today who never heard the name Jesus. These people would spend eternity in hell because they had not heard the good news of Jesus.  The speaker ended his plea by urging us to be the people who would bring the gospel to these 166,000.  I decided then and there that I would be one of those people, I would devote my life to sharing the gospel so that 166,000 people did not die every day not knowing the good news of Jesus.  

 A few years later I found myself on the small island of Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania with a Christian mission team that was working to share the gospel with the one million Muslims who lived there.  After spending many fruitless hours walking door to door sharing my faith with these people I found myself on the back of a truck driving through the heart of residential Zanzibar.  I thought to myself “These are the 166,000, these are the people that speaker was talking about…and this is never going to work.” 

I will never forget that moment, it has and it continues to be a defining moment in my life.  It was a moment of defeat, but it was also very much a moment of re-birth. Because it was at that moment that all my prior notions of who God was began to crumble and at the same time began to expand.  It was also then and there that I began a long journey towards a new way of life.  A way that was not consumed with making up for the irresponsibility of a petty and vengeful God but rather a way of life that was open to the unending possibilities of a world that is held in the powerful and redeeming hands of a very good and unpredictable God.

A new leg of the journey

On November 1st I started a new job. I am now the Community Architect at Church of the Apostles, a sacramental/liturgical/emerging church in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle.  My main purpose as the Community Architect will be working to create systems of communication and connection that allow for the fostering of community within the church.  

This new leg of the journey has caused me to reflect upon the path that I have been traveling for the past few years (though it goes back even farther).  Back in 2005 and 2006 I completed a year of study at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.  During my time there I had the privilege of taking classes from the late Robert Webber.  In his classes on worship and spirituality Bob introduced me to ancient and liturgical forms of worship as well as integrating them into the postmodern world that we live in today.  He taught me that to worship is to participate in the enactment of the story of God (See Why Episcopal I, II, III).  Under Bob’s teaching I was soon an Evangelical on the Cantebury Trail.  

During this time I was also becoming more and more disillusioned (if you are at all familiar with my theological musings the reasons for this are quite obvious) with the church tradition that I found myself in.  This disillusionment and other circumstances that Kate and I were going through brought us to the realization that we needed to go West.  In the summer of 2006 Kate and I packed up our stuff and headed to Seattle to attend Mars Hill Graduate School.  We went to MHGS with the hope of re-imagining our Christian faith with the help of others.  Little did I know that my journey towards Anglicanism would pick up here in Seattle.  Some friends of ours were attending St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Lower Queen Anne (the neighborhood that Kate and I moved into).  Upon their invitation we started attending, and it was pretty soon that Kate and I knew that we were home  (Again, see Why Episcopal?).   

However, this new found home also caused me a vocational dilemma.  I am now part of a mainline protestant denomination where most of the paid jobs belong to ordained priests and I just graduated from a little known evangelical/emergent seminary that has no ties to this church.  Where in the $&^% am I going to find a job?!  And then right as I am graduating I am presented with a unique opportunity to work at a church here in Seattle, that is both Episcopal and emerging.

I resist using language of “God ordained this” or “it was God’s hand leading me the whole way”, etc…  That language is difficult for me because one, I used that language to describe choices in my life before that turned out to not be the healthiest choices, and then I am left with the dilemma of “Did God want to cause me harm?  Or did I mess up God’s plan, etc…”.   And two, I believe that God wants me to make choices, wise choices, that reflect upon a whole range of things, only one of which is “What is God leading me to do?”.  

In this situation though, I can’t help but smile a little bit with the sense that God is walking with me as both God and I make our way into this next leg of the journey.