Blessed are the Cheesemakers?

Our church, like many across the nation and world who use the Lectionary, preached on the Beatitudes this past Sunday. While this introduction to the Sermon on the Mount does convey a bizzaro world of blessings - poor, mourning, persecuted...blessed? - it is anything but funny. Yet, when I read Jesus' words in Matthew 5, I can't help but seeing this in my mind:



Beyond being hilarious, it is painfully true to how the Sermon on the Mount has been recieved by those who hear it - going blow-for-blow while Jesus praises meekness and bickering while Jesus lifts up the peacemakers. All the while, his voice is drowned out by the name-calling. Funny stuff, and accurate.

January Newsletter: Christian Astrology?

I’m a Gemini – at least, that is the astrological sign assigned to me. Today, my Daily Horoscope informs me: “You may have been a little difficult to be around lately. You like to treat yourself to a little moodiness from time to time, but the people around you might appreciate a little cooperation.” I have not taken a poll on just how difficult it has been to be around me lately, but I don’t think this celestial wisdom is very applicable to me. Maybe it has to do with the fact that this message applies to anyone and everyone in the entire world who was ever born between May 21 and June 20.

So what would you think if you showed up at worship one Sunday and the guest speaker that day was an astrologer? How would you feel about someone sharing knowledge and direction they gleaned from looking at the stars? Well every year on the Sunday before January 6^th, Epiphany, we invite just those kind of people into our churches and devote an entire service to them – we know them as the Wise Men. Sometimes we refer to them as the Magi, which comes from the Greek word, magoi, which was used to describe priests of a religion (Zoroastrianism) that included looking to stars for divine knowledge and direction.

These were the men who sought the young Jesus, for, as they say, “we observed his star at its rising,^* and have come to pay him homage” (Matt. 2:2). Whatever you may think of astrology and horoscopes and people who follow them, God, at one very important point in the history of humanity, decided to send a message to some folks from a distant land and a foreign religion using a star. It’s a strange story, if you think about it. But in the end, these men end up bowing before Christ, offering their worship and the gifts they brought. It seems that God will do anything to get our attention to lead us Christ, again and again. This year, seek Christ broadly – not just in the officially Christian sectors of life, but in all things, familiar and strange, home and abroad, for “all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in^* him all things hold together” (Col.1:16-17).

This Christmas, Keep It Real

We all have our own Christmas traditions - things that must happen every year in order for Christmas to be Christmas. We get the tree on this date, we attend this Christmas show, we watch this Christmas special on TV, we view our Christmas movies in this order. We arrange it all in hopes that Christmas will feel like Christmas. I think that what we really long for, what I know I long for this time of year, is that Christmas be meaningful and real. That it affect me personally, emotionally, spiritually. This is a high standard to set for Christmas because there are so many artificial things involved and so many people with an interest in selling us on the idea that we can ‘purchase’ a real and meaningful Christmas.

I recently received an email reminding the Church that it might be time to order new candles for the Christmas Eve service. In the email they advertised different kinds of candles that could be purchased, and as I scrolled down I saw something that I never thought I would see, something unimaginable – fake, plastic candles. Yes, you can buy plastic, battery-powered candles to hold as you sing Silent Night, complete with “white plastic flame tip for elegant and realistic look when candle is on or off!” And a “flame that flickers like a real flame!”

They sell these because real candles pose a risk – namely of burning down the church, or at least Aunt Mable’s petticoat. But we use real candles because we want the real thing, risk and all. During Advent, as we prepare for Christ’s coming, if we want this season to be real and meaningful, it make require us to take some risks. To find quiet time, to pray, to search our past, present, and future, and make our hearts and minds a place where Jesus has room to stay. As John says about Christ: “In him was life,^* and the life was the light of all people” (John 1:4). Let’s allow that light to shine on us this year. It might expose some unpleasant things, but it’s worth the risk – it always is if you want the real thing.

Just like a candle – but without the flame, wax, or heat!

The Definitive Mid-Term Election Voting Guide

Ah, yes. It’s a crisp, cool autumn day. Leaves are floating lazily down from trees, blanketing the earth with a collage of orange, brown, red and yellow. The World Series is on the television and the Braves are at home watching it with the rest of us. Pumpkins are smiling at us from people’s front porches and thanksgiving plans are being finalized. Well, all of that it true, except the crisp, cool part – today’s high is 87 – and the part about the leaves blanketing the ground. This is fall in Savannah, so you’ve got to use your imagination a little bit.

There are other things adorning lawns lately, as well as the un-mowed corners and vacant lots of our fair city: political yard signs. That’s right, in case you have not noticed, the Mid-term elections are, well, now. News reports describe voters this cycle as either angry, frustrated, cynical, or just plain apathetic. It is natural when things aren’t going well to express our frustration and anger by demonizing the opposition or whoever we perceive to be at fault. But as Christians we are called to rise above the merely natural to a more spiritual approach.

Although we are citizens of the United States, our primary identity is that of children in the Kingdom of God. We look to Jesus to lead us, and his name won’t be appearing on the ballot this fall or any other time. The signal of his coming won’t be a new congress, but a new heaven and a new earth. He won’t come to fix a broken system in Washington, but to fix a broken world and mend our broken hearts and spirits. He won’t come with a slogan or a platform or talking points, but with Truth that he is and the peace that he brings. The psalmist writes:

Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God,
The Lord will reign for ever,
Praise the Lord! (Psalm 146 – check out the whole psalm)

There are reasons for anger and frustration in this world, but we have been given far, far greater reasons for faith, hope, and love. Cast your vote (metaphorically speaking) for them, and you will not be disappointed.

Halloween Approaches! Good Christians Take Cover! (Newsletter Article)

This morning I walked into the grocery to a glorious sight – the Halloween candy was neatly tucked into the large shelves that greet you directly upon your entrance into the store. You can always count on the candy aisle of the grocery store to cue you in on what season is approaching (sometimes months in advance). See an orange bag of assorted bite-sized mass produced chocolate covered nougat filled candy bars? Halloween is on its way. Red, green, and gold wrapped Hershey Kisses? Hello Christmas. Sugar covered marshmallow bunnies and baby chickens? Easter approaches.

Where would we be without candy to mark our time? As a kid though, I was told by a teacher not to eat the Halloween candy I “worked” so hard to earn. She said that people might hide little razors in there. That was a risk I was willing to take. I think the real danger of Halloween candy is “candy corn.” It seems that for years now people have believed that this stuff is supposed to be eaten, but in my experience it is mostly composed of wax and more suitable as an adhesive for emergency home repairs.

Apart from the dangers of candy and the general scary nature of Halloween, some Christians have proposed that Halloween is not a suitable holiday to be celebrated by Jesus’ followers. But really, Halloween is really All Hallow’s Eve, or All Saint’s Eve, since the next day is All Saint’s Day, the day when we remember those who have died in the faith, who have joined in Christ’s victory over death to enter into his eternal presence. Really, what we recognize on All Saint’s Day is, to many people, the most hopeful and wonderful things that our faith proclaims – that death is not the final word, but God’s love for us in Christ Jesus is, and with it, eternal life beyond and after and above death.

So if anyone should be making merriment on Halloween, it should be us Christians, because we’ve truly got something to celebrate. If we dress up and act silly and (inexplicably) eat candy corn, we do so with a spirit that says, “Where, o death, is your victory? Where, o death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55).

Not for eating.

Another Look: "Getting Lost"

First off, my apologies for being less than regular with the blog, but summer has a way of killing momentum, and I guess that is kind of the point of summer.

On to yesterday's Sermon, "Getting Lost."

We looked at the famous Parable of the Lost Sheep, as it is usually referred to. It could also be called the "Parable of the Dedicated Shepherd."

The parable can be challenging for church folk who have been Christians for a long time. This is because the parable seems to be all about the "lost sheep" and Jesus going out and bringing them in - adding to the kingdom, new church members, new converts. Nothing here for me, thanks, I'm already on the team.

But the message for religiously established (like the Pharisees) and most Presbyterian Church-goers, comes in the line about the "righteous who need no repentance."

These are the found sheep, or in the parable that closely follows, the Older Brother who despises the party thrown for his wreckless brother who thinks he can just stumble home after squandering the gifts his father had given him. The Found Sheep are responsible, respectable, and serious about their faith. All nice things to strive for.

But what have the Found Sheep lost? Often, they've lost the joy of being welcomed by God - sins forgiven, past forgotten, embraced and given a new chance to live. Not that God has withheld these things, but that the found no longer experience them as the amazing gifts they are.

I admit that I often envy people who are fresh off a religious conversion. They act like people who have been given a new life because they have. Everything is new and exciting and wonderful and they are just so thankful for it all. It's like the party that Jesus describes when what is lost is found.

It seems to me that in order to remember and live again in this kind of wonder, we need to get lost a little bit ourselves. We need to lose our serious attitude toward faith, our sense of being an established Christian, our belief that we more or less have things figured out about God and the world. We need to lose those things because they things we build on our own and they become our possessions - the lost sheep on the other hand know that they have nothing and receive everything from God as a pure gift. In that knowledge comes a joy and freedom that comes with emptiness - empty hands are open hands, ready to receive (same with hearts and minds).

Of course, we mature in faith and become more or less "established," but we never want to become those "righteous who need no repentance," because if we no longer think we need to repent, then we have likely forgotten just how much we depend upon God for every moment of every day - each of which is a gift beyond our comprehension.

Another "Come to Jesus" sermon it seems. He keeps calling people to himself, and we can be happy that he always will - again and again.

Another Look: Peace

Christians and peace.



I was watching a documentary yesterday on people who believe that the End Times are very near. Various preachers presented evidence, both biblical and from current events, that the End is near, and with it a last great battle on the earth. They spoke in great detail about the suffering that would occur to those left behind on earth once the believers were raised to the sky. And then this one guy, smiling and excited said, "And we [christians] will get to watch the whole thing happen, looking down on it - I'm really looking forward to that." And then he sort of backpeddled a bit - "I mean...not all the suffering for those people left behind...but, you know, it will be neat to see the end."



The truth is that many people like war and conflict. It can entertain us and give us a 'side' to be on. Unfortunately, alot of folks don't know what they believe or who they are if they arent given a side to be on, and with it, someone or something to oppose and fight against.



But Jesus says, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God."

But Jesus says, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."



In Christ, what divides us from God has been overcome. If we can accept that mercy and the peace that comes with it, we may be able to show mercy to others instead of judgment, and we may begin to look like people who are resting in the peace of Christ, instead of those who are marching to fight a battle that is God's alone to fight.

Paul says it well, "If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." (Romans 12:18)

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Well now that the serious stuff is out of the way, how about some song recommendations that have to do with peace:

Mindy Smith, "Peace of Mind" - Not an artist in the Christian Industry, but a Christian making music in the secular/normal market in Nashville. In my experience, the best Christian music is the kind that happens outside of the CCM (contemporary christian music) industry, because that industry favors light-hearted and overly optimistic songs, or 100% effusive praise music - essentially focusing on the %3 of life when we are on a spiritual high. Christian artists outside of those strictures can write about the other %97 of christian life - the part where we need hope, love, faith, and peace - and they do it very well.

Anyhow, look up the lyrics to "Peace of Mind" or give it a listen on iTunes or Myspace - I tried to post the lyrics but the formatting went all crazy.