The Lutheran Zephyr 2.0

Time Keeps on Slippin'

(This post first appeared in the July 2009 edition of my church's newsletter)

In early 1977 Steve Miller’s “Fly Like an Eagle,” reached #2 on the Billboard Top 100 chart.  Nineteen years later it was covered by Seal, and reached #13 on the pop charts.  It is a song familiar to generations of listeners.

Less notable was the performance of “Fly Like an Eagle” by the Haverford Middle School Chorus in 1987, when a group of 12 and 13 year-olds – who were in diapers when the song was first released – sang the piece while trying to keep from laughing at the absurdly obvious refrain, “Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ into the future”  (like, where else would it go, we wondered?).  Perhaps we adolescent members of the so-called “Generation X” weren’t tuned into the existential ponderings of our parents’ generation (a generational gap that continues beyond adolescence to have significant impact, I believe, on how our respective generations look at institutions such as government or the church, for example … but that’s the stuff for another article).

Time is slippin’ into the future, a reality that is catching up with me these days.  Time management is one of the central challenges I face in my new life as a parish pastor.  To be honest, time management was never my strong suit, but now as I juggle a variety of interests, responsibilities and ministries, and a schedule that includes nights and weekends, I struggle to prioritize or find a balance.  I am experimenting with a new day off (Mondays) and am seeking other ways to use the gift of time wisely as I live into my vocations as pastor, spouse, and parent.  This juggling act is something that many of you confront, as well.

At the synod’s Confirmation Camp, held during the last week of June at Mar-Lu-Ridge Lutheran Camp, 70 kids, 12 faculty members (mostly pastors), and 20 camp counselors recalled the life and ministry of Jesus.  As we recounted a selection of Jesus’ miracles and parables, it felt like time was slippin’ quite quickly into the future!  We began on Sunday evening with Jesus’ baptism, and by Tuesday Jesus was betrayed by Judas at the Last Supper.  Yet on Thursday Jesus was raised from the dead, calling on his followers – in this case, the youth attending Confirmation Camp – to go into the world proclaiming the Good News of God and serving all in his name.  That afternoon we were engaged in service projects at a community center, a nursing home, a local congregation, and at Mar-Lu-Ridge camp itself.

I reflected on this quick passage – or slippin’, to use Steve Miller’s lingo – of time and wondered what was next.  That is, at Confirmation Camp time slipped quickly into the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection, and we responded with acts of love and service.  But then camp ended, we packed up, and went home.  Did God’s time stop slippin’ when we all got back onto Route 15?  I don’t think so.

We live in an in-between time, a time that is slippin’ into God’s promised future, but which is also shaped by God’s mighty acts as recounted in Scripture.  From the Exodus and the Exile, to the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives, our present and our future is grounded in a blessed past.  This past tells us a story of God’s unending mercy and grace, of a God who turns again and again to his people in love.  This past sends us on a path of promise looking forward to a new kingdom, a new creation, a new reality that indeed has been breaking in since Jesus’ baptism.  God’s promised future is slippin’ into the present.

Time keeps on slippin’.  In my daily life, I’m going to try to keep time from slippin’ too far, too fast, or too hectically into the future.  But in God’s time, I’m grateful that time keeps on slippin’, for each minute that passes is a gift from God, an opportunity to witness his love, a chance to be grounded in sacred promises, ancient and future.

Reflections on Church Unity and Bishop Hanson's Letter

Yesterday the Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America released a letter on Christian unity as our church prepares for a potentially divisive biennial churchwide assembly next month.

My thoughts: This letter is essentially about baptismal unity, which is truly a blessed gift of God.  By our baptism into Christ Jesus, we are made one body.  From the Bishop's letter:

We hold in common this confession that God makes us one in Jesus Christ, but it is not making this confession that makes us one. Rather, because God unites us to Jesus Christ in Baptism we are also united to each other in one body that transcends any other difference. Paul states this clearly. “For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:26-27).

The Bishop's reflections on baptismal unity for the life of the church are helpful, but I fear that they are not enough.  When I was ordained I didn't pledge fidelity to my baptismal covenant, but to a particular church, tradition, and set of teachings.  Though the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America professes to be part of "one, holy, catholic and apostolic church," we nonetheless recognize that within that one universal church we maintain a particular discipline and practice as a communion in the Lutheran tradition.  In matters of denominational unity we cannot appeal to baptismal unity only ... for baptismal unity is something that we share with all Christians who baptize in the name of the Triune God, but it doesn't speak to the legitimate concerns and challenges facing denominational traditions and structures today.

In its ecumenical relationships and aspirations the ELCA seeks more than a unity based on a common baptism in Christ. Before entering into a full communion relationship with another denomination, we seek to develop a shared language of faith, and some sort of reconciliation of theological tenets and/or liturgical practice. Our church's goal has been some sort of visible unity, expressed (in part, anyway) through structural means.  We can argue about the merits of this agenda, but working toward visible unity is the policy of our church, a means of putting our "spiritual" unity into practice.

I wonder if in this letter Bishop Hanson asks less of Lutherans (a baptismal unity) than the ELCA regularly asks of itself in discipline and order (fidelity to Lutheran confessions and liturgical practice)?  Is he expecting less of us than we expect of our ecumenical partners in full communion agreements (a visible unity based on liturgical pracitce and structural relationships)?  How does this letter compare with our church's ecumenical agenda?

I fear that this letter speaks to a "spiritual" unity which, on this side of the Kingdom of God, is not enough to keep the church together.  We have confessions and constitutions, traditions and disciplines, all of which are designed to be expressions of and servants to the church and the Gospel it proclaims.  The Bishop should have also appealed to these elements of our tradition in calling the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to unity, for even if our church splits this summer, we will continue to be united to Christ and to each other by baptism.  But is that what we want, a split in which separated brethren can claim baptismal unity but who no longer will strive together for the greater gifts? I don't think so.

As members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, we must expect more of ourselves than baptismal unity.  For though our life together as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is a gift of God, it is also a practice of discipline and mutual admonition that requires carefull attention given to our confessions, tradition, and governance practices. I'm not sure that, in preparation for this year's potentially divisive churchwide assembly, we've sufficiently mined our tradition and our teachings to articulate what unity looks like in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  Denominational unity is a delicate dance that traverses both of God's kingdoms, and demands attention given to the needs of both.  Have we done that?  I'm not sure.  (As time permits, I'll examine our ELCA Constitution and offer some reflections on denominational unity in future posts.)

Though I think that Bishop Hanson's letter missed the mark with this letter, I do not expect our church to rupture this summer. I'm not sure that August will be our church's shining moment, but I don't expect it to be our worst, either.  Let us hope.  Let us pray.

Proud to be a Patriot

(In honor of Memorial Day, Proud to be a Patriot, republished from May 27, 2006)

If there is one thing we liberal-leaning Christians do worse than evangelism, it's patriotism.  Most of us left-ish Christians think it is our job, in the tradition of the prophets, Jesus, and martyrs of every age, to speak truth to power and make the revolutionary call for the mighty to be thrown down, the powerful to be toppled, and the lowly to be lifted up.  To this end, we revel in identifying the multiple specks in the eyes of George W. Bush, the Republicans, and their Conservative Christians allies.  We despise them and their symbols, making mockeries of their campaign logos and disavowing everything they embrace.

One problem, however.  They embrace the flag.  It is on the lapel of every Republican lawmaker.  It is in the churches, homes, and on the cars of Conservative Christians.  The flag stands for everything American, and the Conservatives claim to have a firm grip on it. 

Of course, the flag is for all Americans, but the Conservatives have co-opted the flag (not unlike the way they have co-opted the Bible) and they have largely succeeded in turning it into a partisan emblem.  But they have done this with our help.  Our liberal ability to be suspicious and critical of the government has led many of us to suffer from an inability to profess proper patriotism.  We throw out the baby with the bathwater, confusing what is patriotic with what is partisan.  The flag is NOT an emblem of war-wanting, empire-seeking, tax-cutting, rich-loving, first-amendment-reducing, gas-guzzling, Texas-swagger, power-hungry Republicans. Shame on them for stealing the flag, and shame on us for letting them.

The flag represents our country, its Constitution, its people.  This flag flies over Americans of all types - rich and poor, black and brown and white, male and female, non-Christian and Christian, law-abiding and criminal, legal citizen and illegal immigrant, and so many more.  This flag points to the freedoms and priveledges emblazoned in the oldest written national constitution in the world - a document that restrains the reach government so that people might live and work and speak and gather and worship and innovate and seek opportunity free from government meddling (try doing that in most other countries).  Wrapped up in this flag is a story of freedom unfolding, a story that continues today.

That is why I am proud to be an American.  I fly the flag on most national holidays (see section six of the flag code - though I don't consider Christmas and Easter to be times for flag-waving - see post on God & Country and a follow-up) and I vote in nearly every election.  As a Lutheran, I recognize the God-blessed vocation of government to restrain evil and provide order to society, and I am thankful for those who serve in goverment. 

On this Memorial Day weekend I am thankful for those men and women who serve in the armed forces, and especially for those who gave their lives serving.  They put their life on the line for the sake of the flag and all it represents, and for that reason I fly the flag in their honor and memory.

Ascension - The Forgotten Festival

Of all the major Christian festivals, Ascension gets the least attention in our Lutheran world.  It always falls on a Thursday, and perhaps that is part of the problem.  Ascension hasn’t been insulated by our nation’s culture and laws with school vacation days, federal holiday observances, or traditions of family dinners and gift-giving, as have Christmas, Holy Week and Easter.  Nope.  The Ascension is just a Thursday in spring.

But the Ascension is more than that.  Much more.

The Ascension is the church’s observance of Christ’s ascent into heaven, as told by St. Luke in both the Gospel of Luke (24:44-53) and in the Acts of the Apostles (1:1-11).  According to Luke, this event took place 40 days following Easter, after Jesus appeared to his disciples.  Attached to his ascent into heaven is a promise of Christ’s bodily, incarnate, flesh-and-blood return to earth: “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven,” the angels tell his disciples (Acts 1:11b).  Christ’s return will inaugurate the full establishment of his kingdom on earth.

The angels say, “He will come.”

We pray, “Thy kingdom come,” in the Lord’s Prayer.

We confess, “He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.  He will come again to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end,” in the Nicene Creed.

Christ’s ascent into heaven is directly connected with his return to earth, and his return to earth – popularly referred to as the “Second Coming” – is directly connected to the reign of his kingdom.  And his kingdom is a marvelous thing.

What is Christ’s Kingdom?  It would take more than a newsletter article to describe it, but a few details are helpful … Christ’s Kingdom is that realm ruled by Christ and established at the Easter event when the fundamental laws of life and death were forever broken … death no longer is the final answer.  In fact, prior to Jesus’ resurrection we see glimpses of this new Kingdom in his miracles of raising the dead to life, casting out demons, and healing the sick.

But more.  The kingdom of God is also marked by abundance and joy, where all are filled with good things and have no need … like a grand feast.  “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear,” the prophet Isaiah writes (25:6).  It is a feast not unlike what we see in Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the multitudes (Mark 6, Mark 8, and elsewhere), where all were filled and baskets full of food was left over.  The kingdom is filled with the joy of finding a lost child (Luke 15), the tearing down of human divisions (Luke 10), and the reign of love (John 13).

If Easter shows us the new reality that God is making in the world – a reality where sin and death don’t have complete control – the Ascension is a reminder that this new reality will come for all the world … that Christ who rose from the dead and ascended into heaven is coming back to earth to finish what he started, to establish his grace-filled rule “on earth as it is in heaven.”

So go ahead, and mark your calendar – The Ascension of our Lord is on May 21.  Give thanks to God for the resurrection on that day, for the blessings of Christ’s Kingdom, and for the promise that “He will come again … and his kingdom will have no end.”

This piece was originally published in my congregation's May newsletter.

For other reflections on the Ascension, resurrection, and the coming of Christ's Kingdom, see:

National Day of Prayer, or Ascension Day? written May 2008

All Saints, All Souls, and the Return of Christ written October 2007

Religious Clergy and Legal Weddings in Virginia

In preparation for conducting my first weddings as a pastor I'm reading the Code of Virginia (Title 20 [Domestic Relations] Chapter 2 [Marriage Generally]) and learning some interesting tidbits, especially in regards to the role that ordained clergy play in performing weddings:

• Any "regularly appointed pastor in his denomination" may perform wedding ceremonies in Virginia (though this leaves open the question about retired pastors or other pastors who are not "regularly appointed.") (see § 20-23)
• The law specifies no fee for clergy to obtain the order for authorization to perform wedding ceremonies, but in Arlington County (at least) there is a one-time $29 fee.  
• People whose religious communities do not have clergy can also be married within their religious communities, but that'll cost someone from their community a $500 bond with surety (see § 20-26)
• Non ordained persons may also perform wedding ceremonies, given that they receive an order from a judge and put up a $500 bond (with or without surety) (see § 20-25)
• Officiants are not allowed to charge more than $50 for the ceremony itself (see § 20-27)

As some of you know, I have some serious concerns about church/state matters, worried that both get compromised when they get too close to each other.  But in conducting a wedding as an ordained pastor I simultaneously proclaim the blessings of the church and execute the court-issued marriage license in the same liturgy, making the marriage legal in the eyes of the state.  I am uneasy about this, and would much prefer a system wherein couples first get married by an official of the courts and then later bring their legal marriage to the church for its blessing (which, I understand, is how weddings are performed in much of the world).

But that's not our system, and I'm not going to buck it.  For a variety of practical and pastoral reasons I'm not going to insist that couples get married before a judge prior to a church wedding, nor will I invite a judge or bonded non-ordained person to conduct the "legal" part of the marriage ceremony within the church service.  Yes, I've considered these options, but I've concluded that it is not worth it.  Instead, as I suggested in the past in response to this dilemma, through introductory remarks and/or the homily I will make clear that marriage is both a legal and a sacred bond, with both legal and sacred responsibilities and privileges (which resonates deeply with our Lutheran understanding of the Two Kingdoms ...).

The wedding day is not just about love and sentiments, or even the Spirit that has brought the couple together.  Rather, the wedding is an opportunity for couples to make promises that are legally binding and held in sacred trust, to hear the Word of God in Law and Gospel, and to receive the blessings of God and support of the gathered community.  It is a beautiful yet multifaceted occasion requiring careful attention be given to its diverse aspects ... I hope and pray that I am up to the task!

Envisioning a Ministry of Christian Education

On Wednesday our Christian Education leaders will gather to dream, brainstorm, and begin laying plans for next year's ministry of teaching and learning at Resurrection Lutheran Church.  Here is the draft meeting agenda ... What do you think?  Anything you'd add or remove from this agenda?  Thanks ...

Gathering

• Coffee and goodies

Opening Prayer and Scripture

• Responsive Prayer, Evangelical Lutheran Worship, pages 328-331
• Deuteronomy 6:1-8
• Romans 10:9-17

Sharing

• Tell us about a significant experience you’ve had of Christian learning, faith formation, or wrestling with God.  This may or may not have taken place within a congregation’s traditional ministry of Sunday School or education.

“The Big Picture” **

• What do we teach, and why?
• What assumptions do we make about the people we serve through our education ministry?
• What do we expect to happen as a result of our Christian teaching and learning (in the lives of learners, in the life of this congregation, in the community at large)?
• (for background on these questions, see my March newsletter article, available as a pdf here.  Go to page four.)

Looking Ahead to the 2009-2010 Program Year **

• With this “Big Picture” in mind, what do we hope for, dream about, and look forward to in the 2009-2010 program year?

Review of 2008-2009 Program Year

• What went well?
• What didn’t go as well as we would have hoped?
• What changes would we like to make for next year?
• What leadership/personnel structure do we need for next year?

Next Steps

• Based on our conversation today, what is next?
• Schedule 2009-2010 nuts-and-bolts planning meeting

Closing Prayer and Blessing

-----

** The heart of our meeting begins with the hopes and dreams for our future, not a review of our past.  Not only do I think this line of thinking is deeply theological and biblical - ours is a faith that looks forward to the promised day of salvation and which today lives out of that future reality - I also want to avoid starting out the meeting getting bogged down in the joys and challenges we experienced in this past year.  Surely we'll get to those issues, either later in the agenda (as listed above) or within the discussion of our hopes and dreams, but I don't want to start there.  This order is counter-intuititive, but I think it will work quite effectively ... (or, I hope so, anyway!).

Today is the National Day of Prayer

My three frequent readers - or what's left of them after I've all but fallen off the blogging cliff - know that I have some severe concerns about the relationship of church and state, particularly when the two get too close to each other.  And so since today is the National Day of Prayer (established in 1952 and coordinated by a task force currently chaired by Shirley Dobson), I offer links to past posts expressing concerns about the blending of faith and patriotism, and outlining what I feel to be appropriate ways Christians can engage political and civic matters.

• Praising God, Honoring Country

One of my favorite posts ... an outline for how Christians can and should praise God and honor country, while recognizing the differences between and maintaining the integrity of both faithful praise and patriotic honor.  A follow-up: More Thoughts on God & Country.

• Why I Don't Like the National Day of Prayer

A little piece outlining my concerns about this very day.  Written in 2008.

• I frequently and severely criticized Barack Obama on church/state matters when he was running for office, including:

Matthew 25 Network's Obamessiah Complex

Faith, Politics, and Obama

"Barack Obama is a Strong, Christian Family Man"

• Too Much Religion in this Race

This post commends Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee for trying to turn the focus from religion to politics in the GOP Presidential primary.

• Luther on Government in Psalm 82

Less focused on the church/state issue, this post looks at Luther's writings on Psalm 82 in search of a "Lutheran" political philosophy.

A few new sermons

My two most recent sermons - from the Second and Fourth Sundays of Easter - are now available with all of my other extant sermons, on my sermons page.  In these sermons I explore seeing God in the human and ordinary elements of life (Easter 2) and the lengths to which we'll go to refute the hard-to-hear Good News of the Good Shepherd who calls and tends his sheep (Easter 4).

Peace to you.

Acolytes ... What good are they?

I need your input: what do acolytes do at your church?  I'm thinking about tweaking the acolyte role at my congregation, and I want your input.

I ask this because, in general, I think that most of our churches do a disservice to children by subjecting them to and limiting them to roles of candle-lighter and perhaps offering-plate-carrier.  That is, I think we're setting a pretty low bar of expectation when we ask our middle school kids to light a few candles and carry an offering plate fifteen feet.  In their schools they're doing work that is largely much more engaging and of a higher caliber than that which they do in our churches.  No wonder kids get bored ...

[These are tasks that are arguably unnecessary, too.  Ever since humans learned how to harness the power of electricity and use it to illumine light bulbs candles really haven't been necessary ... except to make the sanctuary look "churchy," since our image of church is stuck somewhere in the medieval era.  As for the offering plates ... most of our acolytes simply carry the offering plates about fifteen feet, from the communion rail to a side table.  Of course, the whole act of bringing the offering forward is not without question, as the act of carrying plates to the altar can suggest that we're giving our offerings to God or that we're making some sort of sacrifice at the altar ... which we're not.]

Surely acolyting is not the only ministry for our children in our churches, and worship is not the only arena for our young people to participate.  Hopefully in education and youth ministries our young people are challenged to explore faith and life and ethics and Scripture and theology in ways that will help them grow in and claim as their own this gift of faith, and the church as their own community of faith.  Set within a broad and rich youth ministry, perhaps giving kids very simple tasks to do in worship is fine ... but I'm not so sure.

Nonetheless, I wonder:

• how necessary is the acolyte role at all?
• how can young people be meaningfully involved in the (very public, very visible) worship life of the church by serving as lectors, crucifers, ushers, communion assistants, even assisting minsiters (for older kids, likely, and with some training - I first served as an assisting minister in ninth grade)?
• if we keep the acolyte role, does it necessarily need to be limited to children?  Especially if the other roles are opened up to children, surely an adult could be an acolyte, and a young person could be a crucifer or a lector ...

Finally, I hear all too often a common complaint/comment about children in church: kids don't know how to worship and/or serve as a worship leader.  To which I respond: that's because we don't teach them or train them how.  I've seen way too many acolyte trainings that are done on-the-fly or, if a training session is offered, the training is often not repeated, refreshed, or reviewed.  So if we tell kids once, several months (or years) earlier, how to do something, or if we "teach" them at a rushed pace five minutes before the worship service, and they don't remember how to do it, who is to blame?  The complaining adults who didn't take the time to train the youth, that's who.

My rant is over.  You've got my perspective.  Now, rip it to shreds and/or offer alternative perspectives.  Thanks.

Asking Youth Ministry Questions

On Sunday I'm gathering with members of my congregation to talk about the future of youth ministry here.  We currently have a vibrant Confirmation Class that meets on Sunday mornings, and a group of 15 youth and 5 adults just returned all pumped up from a weekend youth gathering sponsored by the synod.  We currently don't have much programming for youth outside of the Sunday morning experience, but I expect that to change . . .

Our conversation this Sunday will be made up mostly of adults, as the youth will be in Confirmation Class that morning.  We'll hear from the youth, and other adults, in future meetings.  After asking people to share their own experiences of youth ministry - as a youth, as a parent, as a volunteer here or at other congregations - I'll go through a few simple questions to guide our conversation:

• Why have a youth ministry?  
• What shall we offer/do in our youth ministry?
• What assumptions about our youth do we bring to this ministry?
• What assumptions about our adults do we bring to this ministry? 
• What do we expect to occur in the lives of our young people through this ministry?
• What do we expect to occur in the life of this congregation through this ministry?

(These questions are based on questions posed by ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson in an excellent letter to pastors on the ministry of preaching.)

I think it is important to have this conversation about youth ministry intergenerationally, to bring lots of voices to the table.  Youth ministry is congregational ministry, not a segregated ministry apart from the wider church.  Age-specific programming is important, but if youth ministry doesn't seek to be part of the broader church, and if the broader church doesn't seek to be part of the youth ministry, then it is doomed to be a ghetto of youth and youth workers distinct from the church's central ministry of Word and Sacrament.

My philosophy on youth ministry is clearly shaped by my experience as a youth in the church: I was raised in a church with three youth.  We didn't have youth programming, so I did "adult" things in the church.  During high school, I was the only bass singing in my church choir for three years.  I counted the offerings, and served as lector, assisting minister, and cantor.  Simply put, I was part of the church's leadership, just like many of the adults in the church.

Surely I want my church kids to be part of a vibrant youth ministry, sharing life and faith with their peers and not just with their elders.  But I get worried about the age segregation that happens when youth are banished to youth rooms with crappy furniture and called on to lead worship only once per year in a special "Youth Sunday."  In fact, I have lots of feelings about Youth Sundays - ranging from the ambivalent to the negative - but that will be the stuff of a future post.

More thoughts on youth ministry in the coming weeks.

Peace to you.