Being the Church Today: Communion

And then I find that you bring your divisions to worship—you come together, and instead of eating the Lord’s Supper, you bring in a lot of food from the outside and make pigs of yourselves. Some are left out, and go home hungry. Others have to be carried out, too drunk to walk. I can’t believe it! Don’t you have your own homes to eat and drink in? Why would you stoop to desecrating God’s church? Why would you actually shame God’s poor? I never would have believed you would stoop to this. And I’m not going to stand by and say nothing.  1 Corinthians 11:20-22 (The Message)

I am continually compelled by communion.  Too often in ministry, the mystery of communion and the practices surrounding the sacrament, has caused frustration and even brokenness.  Let's start with the fact that communion was originally an addition onto the Passover Seder.  Jesus gathered in the upper room to celebrate Passover, which is one of the holiest Jewish rituals and days.  Passover is telling the story (remember the previous post about letting God's story mingle in your story?) of God intervening in the lives of the people who were indentured servants in Egypt.  It is the story of God making a way when it seemed like there was no way.  It is the story of God claiming, adopting a stiff-necked people who had trouble breaking out of the cultural of fear and scarcity (because there is a story sounds VERY familiar to mine!).  Jesus gathers with his friends in a home.  Unlike Christianity, which often focuses/centers in a church, much of Judaism is practiced in the home.  Much of the Sabbath, the day of rest, is spent in the home...not a church.  There might be a story you want to hear more about.

Jesus and his friends/family enact, retell, relive, remember, re-embody the sacred story of Passover.  And Jesus adds a new wrinkle.  One of the great truths is that religion is always unfolding and inching forward, perhaps in some small way, but a new way nevertheless.  Jesus adds another loaf of bread and cup of wine (there was already four cups of wine in Passover by this point...no wonder some accused Jesus of being a drunkard and glutton!).  Jesus takes, gives, and says remember.

Notice that in communion, our only responsibility is to receive and remember.  Our responsibility is participate fully.  We don't make the bread.  We don't buy the wine/juice.  We only show up with our hands wide open.  For me, that is metaphorically and symbolically true of so much of my life.  I show up with really only my presence to offer.  Sure, on Sunday, I have a prepared sermon.  Sure at meetings I have my notebook, minutes, and my own opinions (plenty of those).  But full life as shown at communion is about receiving.  Receiving openly and humbly the grace we did not earn or buy or prepare...which is why it is grace!

Yet, too often today, we take Christ's table and put barriers to others.  We say, "You are welcome, if you believe such and such."  Or, "You can come, IF you are baptized."  Or, "Come all...except people who make us uncomfortable."  What part of loving our enemies do we not understand?  Or, more honestly, are truly afraid of when it comes to such a radically open table invitation as communion.  We, like the Corinthians, still divide and debate the table.  Even the church I serve, with our open communion practice, can still make some shift uncomfortably or really wonder if we mean it.  To be sure, we (as a church) try our best.  But the real grace is that it is not up to me.  I am not the one who is really the host.  Christ is.  At the table we encounter Christ.  We encounter his full story: his birth, life, death, and resurrection.  That whole story intertwines with our story in that holy moment.

The communion...union...part of Eucharist is that.  A holy, grace-filled, moment where past, present, future all get mixed up and for a brief moment, in Christ's presence, we are one with each other and with God's presence.  That is the promise we taste on the tip of our tongue with the bread and wine.  That is the promise I need every day to remind me of the way to life, full life.

Blessings and may you sense more than a trace of God's grace the next time you celebrate communion.

Being the Church Today: Past

Remember our history, friends, and be warned. All our ancestors were led by the providential Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea. They went through the waters, in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from enslaving death to salvation life. They all ate and drank identical food and drink, meals provided daily by God. They drank from the Rock, God’s fountain for them that stayed with them wherever they were. And the Rock was Christ. But just experiencing God’s wonder and grace didn’t seem to mean much—most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased.  1 Corinthians 10:1-5

Paul has held the Corinthians accountable up to this point on all the ways they have broken covenant with each other.  He has called them on the carpet when it comes to understandings of baptism, communion, relationships, power, and being the church.  But in chapter 10, he says, "Remember OUR history..."  Here is the thing, it was NOT really the Corinthians history.  We suspect some, even many, in the Corinthian church were Gentiles, not Jewish.  Paul is taking the Jewish story and laying it over the story of this new church start.  He is offering a story of a past that no one in that church actually lived and many had never really learned.  Being the church today means remembering our past, but not being bound by it.  It is a difficult dance, a two-step that might get our feet/lives all twisted and tangled and cause us to fall flat on our fact.

Here is why: when we remember our past it is easy to slip into nostalgia.  Wasn't it great the pews were full (without asking the harder question, why were they full?  What were the cultural conditions that encouraged church attendance...even mandated it in some communities? And is it just about people in the pews or do we want to people to be engaged beyond the hour on Sunday?).  Or wasn't it great when the Sunday School was bigger (without looking at the truth that there is a good reason they called that time/generation the Baby BOOM!).  Or wasn't it great when the pastor gave longer sermons...just kidding no one remembers or looks back fondly on that.

Looking at the past is difficult.  Think about this in your own life.  Can you really tell the story of every single day in your life without notes?  Can you really remember what it felt like on November 5, 1989?  I don't even remember that date...and wait just a second...I had to stop, count backwards to recall I was in eight grade.  I don't have the foggiest idea what happened on that date.  I don't really remember if it was a good day or even a good year.  I think Middle School was an okay time.  I played in the bad, work on one of those original Mac Computers with the green screen, where you had to type commands, and the cursor blinked at you non-stop just mocking you!!

What do you remember about the past (1989 or some other year)?  How might that both be truth and somewhat generalized by our minds?  One of the truths about Judaism is that it is a narrative religion.   For Jewish people, the story, their story and God's story mingling and merging together is what matters.  Telling the story time and time and time again is what matters and helps them make sense.  In order to understand the story you have to keep telling it and you need to keep including people into the widening story of God's presence.  Your story is, on the one hand, yours.  But your story intersects with other's stories too.  Your story is on-going and unfolding.  Your story is God's story mingling together.  That means, you need to remember, look back to when YOU were led through the waters (perhaps metaphorically or literally!).  When were YOU eating, drinking identical food with others (beyond the church potlucks)?  How can we let God's story in Scripture be a lens for our story?  That is the question facing and challenging us to be the church today!

Blessings to you and me as we try to take these words and let them guide us for the living out of these days.

Being the Church Today: Running

 Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!

24-25 You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally.

26-27 I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself.  1 Corinthians 9:19-27

I sometimes wonder if the model of ministry that best describes what I am doing comes from a cartoon I watched growing up.  On Saturday morning, I would get up early, a feat that could not be accomplished during the week mind you.  I would grab a bowl of Frosted Flakes.  They were great... for cavities.  One of my favorite cartoons was Wile E. Coyote, and his tirelessly efforts to come up with plan to catch that elusive road runner.  Every episode was pretty much the same.  Wiley would draw an elaborate sketch, he would order some item from the Acme Company, although I now wonder what his source of income?  He seemed to spend a lot of time plotting.  Usually his scheme meant strapping some kind of explosive to his back or feet, once said devise was lit it would sent him whooshing past the road runner into a rock or off a cliff where he would suspend in air and hold up a sign that read, “Yikes.”  Yikes might just be one of the most faithful words in trying to lead the church today.  

Paul gives us two great images today.  First is a willingness to meet people where they are at.  He says he reached out to everyone: religious and nonreligious, the moralists and those whose morals were questionable at best.  I think about the recent Pew Research Survey that was released and has been a cause of much discussion and debate.  I wonder if instead of discussing data, the church could start being more concerned about stories?  Your story of who you are, what matters, why, what is at the core?  What if we were less concerned about percentages and more about people?  Less concerned about attendance and more concerned about abiding/attending to each other?  There are countless surveys out there.  Every time we turn around we are being asked for our opinion.  But, the real questions that matter in life are not which soda I prefer or if this car makes me feel happy...the real questions in life are how am I living right now?  What sermon is my bank account preaching about my values?  Where am I energized and what exhausts me?  Those questions need time and space.  They are unending because my answers today are not the same as they were one year ago and won't be the same a year from now.

Tomorrow is Pentecost, the birthday of the church.  If the church is going to be a place with a wide door, a place of extravagant welcome, maybe we need to find new spaces and places to be the church.  Maybe we need to stop thinking about buildings and more about holy ground.  The truth that convicts me is that there are very few temples in Scripture...and the temples that are described are often destroyed or not exactly the places you'd want to hang out.  

So, what is the church?  I know from my childhood choir time, "The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple, the church is not a resting place (which I now have some theological objects to), the church is the people."  Okay everyone now sing with me.

What I know about that song is that it reminds me that the church is a movement.  The church is a dance.  The church needs to be willing to run the race.  Last Sunday, I talked with the church I serve about agape love being a movement toward.  We are able to move toward another person (agape or love them) because God first agaped...moved toward us.  God continually swirls and stirs around us.  Which is a bit scary because if God is always moving, there is an unpredictability and uncontrollable part to the holy.  Which is where the word, "Yikes" is most appropriate.  It can feel often like the church is running in all directions... always plotting and scheming like Wile to come up with the next best thing to bring 'em in.  And yet "'em" remains elusive like the road runner.  Maybe it is time to be less concerned with stats and more concerned with being the church for the people around us.  Being the church is less about the what and more about the how, why, and where is God calling us now.  Being the church meanings staying open to that spirit which abides with us and in us and keeps us moving toward others...agape...for the living out of these days.  And yes, some days are "Yikes" and other days are "Yeah!" and others days are "Yawn"...and the good news is that God is in all that.  

Happy birthday church.  May we celebrate the relationships that bless and bind us together in faith...may we notice that we are the church today.

Being the Church Today: Food Part 2

 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; 3 but anyone who loves God is known by him. 1 Corinthians 8

Okay, I confess I skipped over 1 Corinthians 7 dealing with relationships.  I have a bit of a defense, which is to remember that we are reading the Corinthians' mail.  Sometimes something is said in a personal card to me that is tough for an outsider to sort out.  Second, remember the last post about judging?  Seriously, let's grab coffee and talk about chapter 7.  

In chapter 8, Paul picks up the theme of food dedicated to idols.  This would have been meat sacrificed to Apollo the god of music or Aphrodite the goddess of love.  Some thought, "Hey, I know there is only one God...what is the big deal.  Besides have you tasted the 11 herbs and spices?  Delicious!"  Others thought it was just poor taste and causes confusion among the people of faith.  So there was trouble in River City.  Plus, Paul sets the tone here for the famous chapter 13, the treaties on love.  So, some in Corinth were making arguments...based on knowledge...to show people that idol meat was a-okay.  Others took the other side.  And the bottom line was tension so thick you could cut it with a knife.   

Some might say, where is the connection?  I would suggest that if, like me, you walk past the Apple Store gazing longingly at the new watch...we know what the Corinthians were going through.  If you struggle with wants and that whole stewardship post from a few times ago (you were hoping I forgot that weren't you??) than we know what the Corinthians were going through.  There are temples dedicated to the gods of today all around us...we just don't see it that way.

So, what happens when we bring that into the church?  It can create divisions and tensions.  Where is this happening in your church?  How about your family?  How about within your own heart?

Paul says rather than trying to solve these dilemmas, what if love gets a word in edgewise?  What would God's love say about technology?  About disagreements over theology?  About debates over vision for the church?  Both inside and outside in the church, we need to let God's love give voice to the how, what, and why of our lives.  May there be more than a trace of God's grace moving in our lives as we do so.

Blessings ~ 

Being the Church Today: Judging

When any of you has a grievance against another, do you dare to take it to court before the unrighteous, instead of taking it before the saints? 2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?  1 Corinthians 6

I grew up loving court room dramas.  Perry Mason...check.  Judge Wapner and the People's Court...oh yes.  Colombo, mysteries, CSI, Law and Order; yup, you bet, always, and guilty as charged!  What happens when we have a grievance with a church member?  I mean besides going out into the parking lot and gossiping?  It seems the people in Corinth were more comfortable in a public courtroom than trying to settle in a private conversation.  Of course, we all rely on the court of public approval.  Politicians, athletes, CEOs, and anyone who is every pictured on People Magazine knows how quickly the tide of public opinion can turn.  Everyday we hear some one get swept by the undercurrent of someone in the public eye being judge (right now it is Tom Brady and deflat-gate, but give it a few days...someone else will become the media pinata and everyone comes out swinging).

So, I get why that is brought into the church.  It is the sea we swim in every day.  So, we keep on swimming in the church.  But to stop takes us being intentional and prayerful.  It takes us giving up our opinion...something that I wonder if it is really possible...to let God's opinion take hold of us.  The first step is paying attention to when and where and who you are judging...both inside and outside the church.  If we only do this on Sunday morning...which we definitely should...such a practice needs to extend to our work place, to our family gatherings, to sporting events, to every minute of our lives.  But it is going to take time and thoughtfulness and a lot of grace.

What do you think of when you hear the word, "judgement"?

Are you ready to embrace that we all judge or do you find yourself wanting to push away from this blog and click on another site?

How can your friends at church help?  What kinds of practices do we need to engage in order to take Paul's words seriously for our lives here and now?

In these questions, we need God's grace moving powerfully and persistently.  I pray it would be so for you and me.

Blessings ~

Being the Church Today: Body

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father’s wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you?
3 For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present I have already pronounced judgment 4 in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. 1 Corinthians 5

Apparently arguing about who is the wisest of them all was not enough for the Corinthians.  Apparently baptismal divisions were not enough for the Corinthians.  Apparently debating food and being faithful stewards were not enough for the Corinthians...they gotta go and get all 50 Shades of Grey in Scripture.  I am going to go out on a limb and say most UCC churches have not spent a lot of time preaching on this.  In the last post, we spent some time thinking about money...so why not follow that up with a post about sex.  That should help increase the readership.

We live in a highly sexual world.  Women are objectified from the football we watch on Sunday to the magazines we flip through while in the line at grocery store.  Of course issues of Men Health and GQ also idealize men, but arguably to a lesser extent.  Turn on the tv...go to the movies...drive down the road, Paul's words still hold truth for us.  It could not only be reported but confirmed that there is sexual immorality among us today.  We spend more time throwing hateful words about two monogamous people of the same gender who want to get married than the easy of pornography available on your computer with a slight click of your mouse.

Like money, we want to control the conversation because we know that our approach to bodies is stuck in Victorian attitudes that ring hallow in a contemporary world.  We don't want to talk about it.  We want to stick our fingers in our ears and say, "La, la, la, I am not listening."  Especially for me with two children daily moving closer to the strange world known as adolescence.  What is the sexual ethic of the church?  What is your sexual ethic?  And if you have not thought or talked about it, why?  Why does the church worry and debate the color of the paint for the walls, but refuse to dive deeper into issues like Paul?  No where in Corinthians does Paul discuss whether you should serve regular or decaf?  (By the way, compromise...make a pot of both...and make it free-trade).  If the church wants people to pay attention...pay attention to what people actually look at on the internet...even if that makes us uncomfortable...some times that shifting in the pew is exactly what we need for the shifting spirit of God to enter in.

God's blessings to our churches and lives as we seek to open up on issues we've been taught to keep to ourselves...and may we find more than a trace of God's grace!  

Being the Church Today: Stewardship

Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. 3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. 4 I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God.  1 Corinthians 4

You might be feeling a bit of a disconnect between the picture and the text above.  Maybe wondering, "What is the deal with the pigs?"  I am born and bred in Iowa, where I think pigs outnumber people.  But actually, the picture is to make a point about the word steward, which is really an English word for the ward of the sty, as in pig sty, as in what your mother always said your room looked like.  How in the world did being a keeper and overseer of pigs become a biblical image?  I am not sure exactly, especially since pigs are about as un-kosher as it gets.  But to keep the sty means that you are managing someone else's property.  Remember the prodigal son in the parable bearing his name?  Where does he wind up?  Watching pigs!  And he starts to salivate at what the pigs are feasting upon.  In that moment, the prodigal was a steward.

That is quite the image to think of next time your church does its annual stewardship campaign.  But if you think about it, the way the church approaches money might as well be dealing with pigs.  Pastor's dance around talking about money.  Or the pastor goes to the other extreme and starts to rain guilt that if you don't increase your pledge that you might as well bring the marshmallows for the after life because God will see that you did not tithe.  It is all messy and brings up a lot of baggage.  But, we need to start unpacking some of that.  We need to start airing our laundry around stewardship.  We need to let God enter in with the wisdom only God can bring...remember Paul cautioned the Corinthians and us today to rely too much on our own wisdom.

So, here is where we might start: do you believe everything belongs to God?  By everything, I mean, everything.  Your house, your car, your family, your paycheck, your calendar, your check book, and your whole life!  It is easy to say, "Oh yeah, totally."  But if you let that sentiment start to rummage around your life, that is where it gets difficult.  Because then we start to say things like, "You deserve that vacation."  Or, "You earned that new car."  However, if our resources belong to God, doesn't that mean that God is the source of our time and talents that allowed/enabled us to earn that treasure?  See what I mean?  One statement starts to wiggle around our hearts and upsets everything...and probably everyone reading this blog!

So, let's start with that statement.  How do you respond to, "Everything belongs to God?"  How do you reconcile that with words like, "deserve" and "earn"?  How does the still speaking God help in this?  Where do all of us need to be better stewards of the sty's of our life?

May God bless the prayerful pondering of our hearts on this issue!