Going to Minneapolis

It's 10 pm and I thought I should post a bit about my experiences in Minneapolis with the Fellowship Gathering of Presbyterians...

There are nearly 2,000 Presbyterian pastors and elders present, including 68 executive presbyters and 30 GA staffers from Louisville.

My day started with a flight from Dallas to Minneapolis via St. Louis.  God set to work right away:  I was seated in the middle between a woman about my age, an agnostic who was into karma and New Age and a man about 35-ish who was (I thought) sleeping.  The woman asked why I was going to MN and I told her and then the questions about spirituality started.  The man woke up and started asking questions, too - he was a physicist who was an atheist.  The conversation was complicated, but in the end, I learned these things that they believed:

The concept of sin is offensive to them because they are "good" people.  They believe they do not act on their bad impulses.  They don't hate anyone.  They are in  control of their lives and are managing well.  The Bible is made up and meaningless, as is the concept of God. From what they know of God, they think we're pieces being moved around on a game board.  Their source is themselves and their faith is in their own abilities.  Personal testimony made little impression on them because they viewed it as the Christian "mis-labeling" as God's intervention what was really coincidence or just finally getting one's act together.

They like the idea of karma because it is "fair" to make people "pay" for their mistakes - but disliked the Bible's concept of people having  to "pay" for their own sins (not fair), or Jesus "paying" for their own sins (unnecessary, because they don't sin) - and failed to see the incongruity.  The discussion was circular, illogical, shallow and sad.  I was surprised how vigorous their opposition to the gospel was and how strong their self-confidence was.  I believe we were all seated there for God's reasons - they, who would likely never be in church, got to question a believer for 2 hours; and I got an opportunity to experience interaction with people truly opposed to the things of God.  We all get the opportunity pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to strive with these people and to increase our love for them.

This evening in Minneapolis was a precious reunion with dear friends I hadn't seen since seminary as well as some pleasant surprises to see others I hadn't known would be here.

Some congregations have sent their whole Session at great expense.  There is a great sense of expectation and hopefulness that this event could spark renewal and reform in the church.

There was an hour and a half of very special worship - Worship focused on the Great Ends of the Church:  The Proclamation of the Gospel for the Salvation of Humankind (Col. 1:15-23); The Shelter, Nurture and Spiritual Fellowship of the Children of God (Eph. 3:14-19); The Maintenance of Divine Worship (Romans 11:33-12:2); the Preservation of the Truth (Matt. 7:24-29); the Promotion of Social Righteousness (James 2:14-24); and the Exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the World (Rev. 21:1-7).

There were some very gifted musicians who played cello, guitar and keyboard, and who led us in singing some of the great hymns of the church as well as others like "In Christ Alone" - that brought everyone to their feet.  Praising God with 2,000 pastors and elders was an extraordinary experience. 


No one knows what the result of this gathering will be - Some have come to find out how to be "faithful in place"; others to explore "Presbyteries Within Presbyteries"; still others to discuss the possibility of a "New Reformed Body."  Tomorrow afternoon we will hear from Cindy Bolbach, the GA Moderator; tomorrow evening, our worship will be led by Dr. Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Theological Seminary.  On Friday, my friend Rev. James Kim will be part of a panel asking, "What is your vision of the Church Jesus wants us to be?"

Please pray for our time together, that we will be humble and restrained in our conversations; that the Holy Spirit would enlighten our understanding of what the way forward should be; for the pastors and elders from congregations struggling to be faithful; that the church would be spared from division.

Christian Virtue is a Team Sport - What is it about Sex?

Tom Wright laments that when groups of Christians are faced with outside opposition, our tendency is to turn on one another with factional fighting.  In wondering about why moral discussions in the church center on "a few favored issues, especially sex:.." he offers that this discussion might be "a 'displacement activity' when we can't cope with the question of how, why and when a whole family of Christians should (but can't) come together in mutual love and support.  That doesn't mean that sexual ethics are unimportant.  On the contrary, they are symptomatic of the health or unhealth of the wider community."


"Personal morality is enormously important, but over-concentration on it can function as a displacement activity when we don't want to address the larger, equally important issues."


          What these "larger, equally important issues" involve are:  when the "rule" against embezzlement is broken, the "larger issue" is that trust is destroyed.  When the "rule" against adultery is broken, the "larger issue" is that the entire faith community "suffers a kind of moral electric shock" that undermines the moral fabric of their world.


          So (me here) the ongoing struggle within our denomination over sexual ethics - including both the insertion and deletion of the "fidelity and chastity" standard for church officers - is a distraction (a displacement activity) from the larger issues of our lack of unity on a myriad of other matters.  (Insert your list here).

Christian Virtue is a Team Sport - Rumble Strips

Tom Wright again:

There is an old saying: Give someone a fish and you feed them for a day; teach someone to fish and you feed them for life.  Paul's normal practice is the latter:...Give people a command for a particular situation and you help them to live appropriately for a day; teach them to think Christianly about behavior, and they will be able to navigate by themselves into areas where you hadn't given any specific instructions....(199)

Paul gives initial guidelines that only look like the "old rules" to keep people on track while they are learning new habits of the heart.   The illustration that sold me on this interpretation is "rumble strips":   When roads are built, they are built for long distances, with the intent that people should drive in full control of their cars..."ideally, nobody will ever stray from their side of the road into the path of traffic coming in the other direction."  But because of distractions, loss of concentration and mechanical failures, "the wise highway builders construct a central barrier, so that any car drifting toward oncoming traffic will be stopped in its tracks...likewise they build a 'rumble strip' at the outer edge of the highway, short of the ditch."  

          "Those responsible for building roads are not saying, 'There you are, there's a nice crash barrier [for you to bounce off of...they're saying], 'You're supposed to drive down the road without touching the barriers. But if something goes wrong you may  need to know the barrier is there."


          The barriers are still there - they are real and necessary for the unity of the church, for the integrity of the disciple and for moving toward life in the realized Kingdom of God.  But it's better to concentrate on our driving skills than on the quality of our bumpers.

Christian Virtue is a Team Sport

Sometimes I think I don't have an original idea (does anybody?) because I "process" so much of what I'm reading in this blog.   But few people have the luxury of reading as much as pastors do.

I've returned to an interrupted reading of N.T. Wright's After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters.  The best thing about this book (so far) is his rehabilitation of Paul from our black-and-white understanding of him: 

"A large number of Christians have assumed that the foundation of Paul's thinking goes like this: He spent the first part of his life trying to keep the rules of his religion, and then discovered not only that he couldn't but that the rules weren't the point.  God didn't want rule-keeping, he wanted 'spontenaeity.' God had forgiven him all his rule breaking, in and through Jesus Christ, and was now giving him his Spirit, who would produce the "fruit without all that horrible moral striving." (191)

          The correction he offers is that Paul believed that when the church's focus on the meeting of personal moral standards results in "huge fights" within the church (in Galatia), it is a "sign that something has gone wrong" within the community of faith because "Christian virtue is a team sport." 

          When Paul lists the behaviors he associates with "the flesh" in the vice list in  Galatians 5.19-21: 

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;  idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God

          he is giving examples of  "what happens when humankind turns in on itself and away from God...the roads which do not lead in the direction [of the coming kingdom]...the ways people on earth keep the life of heaven at bay...and so declare by their behavior that they want to keep earth just the way it is, in its present corrupt and decaying form."

     He goes on to point out that the fruit of the Spirit does not grow automatically, as though we sit back and wait for the fruit to arrive:  "If self-control was automatic, why would self-control be needed?" (196)  You have to choose to live in the Spirit.  

            

Truth and Legalism

    Reading Eric Metaxas' biography, Bonhoeffer, is making me late for a lot of meetings and appointments lately.  I can't walk past it without reading a few pages, because it contains so many nuggets from Bonhoeffer's diaries and notes that shed light on his theology, as well as  the development of his thoughts that led to his resistance during WWII.

     Have gotten to the "tipping point" section, where excerpts from his unfinished work, Ethics examine the relationship between Truth (a Big Topic in mainline denominations these days) and Legalism (Big Topic No.2 )

  In Tegel prison, Bonhoeffer wrote an essay titled, "What Does it Mean to Tell the Truth."  He wrote that God's standard of truth involves more than merely "not lying," and requires a deeper level of obedience.  

     Never telling a lie is "easy religious legalism."  The illustration he used is if a teacher asks a child in front of the class if her father is a drunkard, (and he is) and the child answers, "No," then our first impression is that the child has told a lie.

     Bonhoeffer believed that the "flip side of the easy religious legalism of never telling a lie" was the cynical notion that there is no such thing as truth, only "facts."  But if our relationship with God orders everything else around it, then we can't separate our actions from our relationship to God.  So:  If this child standing before her teacher is responding from the seat of her understanding of both her relationship to God and to her father, then for her to answer factually in public that he is a drunkard, is to dishonor her father in truth, damaging her relationship with God and with her father, which would be a greater sin before God..

     He wrote this about the "truth legalist":  "He dons the halo of fanatical devotee of truth who can make no allowance for human weaknesses, but in fact he is destroying the living truth between men.  He wounds shame, desecrates mystery, breaks confidence, betrays the community in which he lives and laughs arrogantly at the devastation he has wrought and at the human weakness which 'cannot bear the truth.'"
Nothing like a German theologian to turn my brain into a pretzel.  This is much deeper than simple situational ethics - this is Sermon on the Mount Stuff.  Better to think about such things now, before Jesus asks us what we think about it.

Us versus Grace

     In a room full of traffic offenders, almost everyone is indignant that they have been caught speeding when others (who were, apparently, faster and therefore "more wrong") got away without being stopped, and so the offenders who were slow enough to get caught should not be found guilty.  Awesome logic, that.

     The second attempt to deflect attention away from one's own bad actions is to blame something inanimate that forced your unlawful action:  "The speed limit is too low on that road," (as though every driver is empowered to be his or her own legislature); or  "It was raining/there was a lot of construction/I was in a strange neighborhood/it was dark and I couldn't stop/avoid the collision/see the stop sign," (as though there was no driver responsibility to avoid obstacles or adjust their driving according to road conditions).  

     When I was a judge in my previous life, I used to try to explain that in America, self-government meant that we were expected to use self-restraint and respect the rights of others; and that people shouldn't complain about the government making "too many laws" because it is their own behavior that caused the proliferation of laws:  folks couldn't manage to drive in a single lane, in the same direction, at a safe speed.   (Someone once told me that "if you throw the book at somebody you don't get to lecture them; if you're reducing the fine, you can say whatever you want...")!

     The following profundity is why I love studying the Bible in small groups...while not an exact quote, the gist of the comment was:

     "When people can't restrain themselves and respect others, we create rules. When there are lots of rules, people break them. It becomes a lot of trouble to deal with the rulebreakers, so we just declare everyone right."

     That's our way.  This is God's way:

     This is the way to live a God-centered life.  Exceeding these limits will result in chaos, sickness and death.  I know you will not only break through these limits, you will bend them and blur them and blame others.  I love you and will forgive you for this, but you are still wrong in both your understanding and your actions, and I want you to let me steer you back to the best course, a better way.

     So when Grace is available, why do we still insist on being right?

    

Compromised Christian

When John Calvin used the term "total depravity," he wasn't trying to say that human beings were totally, completely evil through and through.  

What he was getting at is that whatever we do, good or bad, is "tinged" (a little bit colored, a little bit spoiled) by sin.  This is my personal test:  Did you ever do anything selfless and good?  Are you proud of it?  Well, there ya go.  I like to think of it as being a "blue man" - we look like respectable people, we want to do the right thing, and sometimes we can do good things, but there's always that little bit of blue that won't scrub off, and leaves a smudgy fingerprint on everything we touch.

Pentecost has me thinking about how Jesus is Lord over the whole world and all of life whether you've asked Him to be or not.  It can't be any other way.  Christ is either Lord of all of life or none of it.  "Brothers and sisters, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37b)  "...What kind of people ought you to be?  You ought to live holy and godly lives."  (2 Peter 3:11b)

In nearly every crisis situation there is some spiritual aspect, where the person or persons involved have tried to do something they thought was a good thing (like getting married, raising children, starting a new job, lending money to a friend or family member, and on and on), without considering what God's will might be for their lives, or what Scripture says about it.  The protests usually begin, "But I thought..." or "Why would God..."  God gets blamed for plenty of things God didn't do...

Week after week, people go back to whatever it was they were trying to do on their own, thinking that spending family time at a sports event is as helpful - or better - than being in church together; children are dropped off at Sunday School while parents go out to breakfast, leaving the church to attempt to accomplish in one hour a week what God tasked parents to do on a daily basis; couples go off to spend a weekend at a swanky hotel hoping that it will save a marriage the same way that praying together and having the support of a church family can; singles rush to nightspots looking for "Mr. or Mrs. Right" on Friday and Saturday nights instead of waiting on God's choice.

Of course, we thank God for grace.  Of course, we will all continue to make mistakes.  Of course, nobody's perfect.  Of course, the blood of Jesus gives us "white fingerprints" instead of blue ones.

"What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to sin and death?" Romans 7:24 

 But how much more likely are we to grow in grace if we quit working so hard to make our own lives turn out the way we've planned, and instead make room for God to work on our behalf while we worship and pray together?  Why not call a "time out" and back off yourself, your kids, your spouse and your employees for awhile?  What would happen if we got your eyes off of ourselves and back onto Jesus?