I Hate Presbytery*

At least it's not this bad.  From commons.wikimedia.org

I hate Presbytery.*

*Well, not really, but at least now I’ve got your attention. Perhaps I’m simply a defective Presbyterian.  Robert’s Rules do not bring me joy. I read the packet and study the issues in advance, but I often don’t have a strong opinion on whatever is being debated.  More often, I sit in meetings and die on the vine.

I don’t want to offend anyone.  And I'll also be the first to admit I am not God's gift to meeting moderating, either. I see how much work goes into planning all these meetings, and I appreciate and like the people who do that work to make the meetings happen.  I even get why these meetings are (probably) important.  And I like things like meeting or catching up with people, hearing from candidates preparing for ministry, and so forth.  I almost always like the lunch.

++

Maybe it’s all the articles lately about why young people are leaving the church, and I’m not all that old myself.  And while I’m a pastor, and therefore in the church, maybe Presbytery is where I get to be a restless young adult.

So what I find myself doing in the back of the room is trying not to squirm too visibly; I drain the coffee pot, I try to maintain a minimal awareness of the proceedings in the room, and I otherwise let my mind wander.  I try to give myself space to be creative, figure out new ideas for outreach and mission in my context, or a new opportunity for a colleague wrestling on a problem.  This month, I came up with some ideas for using Vine and YouTube on our church’s website, so that going to the website was more like going to church (in a good way), as well as the possibility of a midsummer candlelight outdoor worship on our lawn--wouldn’t that be cool? But I digress...

I realize, in the little meetings out in the parking lot afterwards, that there are ‘gatherings’ and there are ‘meetings.’  Gatherings are fun.  Meetings feel required.  Gatherings are creative.  Meetings are pretty prescribed.

From Newark Presbytery.  Sounds like fun!

I want to learn stuff, and then I want to go do stuff.

If our Sunday mornings are supposed to be little Resurrections, nay, CELEBRATIONS, (oh, don’t get me started on our Protestant Frozen Chosen ways), then why not have presbytery meetings be BIG Celebrations?  Why not be the Big Dance (or, Big Tent, anyone?)  

So relatively few of us can afford to go to the big, nationwide conference or teaching events that are so inspiring.  Why not bring a little of that home?  

When I was in the Presbytery of Chicago, I enjoyed presbytery meetings.  Well, not the meetings part, but the pre-presbytery events.  There were tables lining a large room with the best of each congregation’s programs, as well as all sorts of non-profits and causes and campaigns and what have you going on in the area, anything with some connection to Presbyterians.  I learned a lot, and I met a lot of people working for change in their communities, who helped me to look at my own community and its problems in new ways, with new possibilities.  There were caucuses and teaching workshops.  You could slip in and out of rooms, and toss around ideas in between.  Sometimes there was a book swap in the middle of the room.  Oh, and there were always lots of snacks.

Worship brought in the brightest and best of our presbytery, where we heard and practiced new songs and heard creative prayers and were enhanced by the visual arts and multi-sensory worship.  

Another place I don’t hate is General Assembly.  Sure, the actual meeting is either contentious or tedious, but I would survive a week of being there simply because there’s other stuff to do.  there’s the big room at GA where all the advocacy and mission and educational programs are--I get to reconnect with all the wonderful things our mission dollars do.  Or hang with my PPF peeps.  Or pick up some fair trade coffee, or check out a few good new books.  You get the picture.

So, let’s cut to the chase.  Have the meeting in the afternoon, do all the procedural things that will put me in a coma.  I’ll continue to bear with it until I’m honorably retired, or something like it.  However, in the mornings, or at least at some point:

I want to incubate creative new ministries, and bounce ideas off my colleagues.

I want to recharge our teaching elders and ruling elders together, so we all return to our home parishes with new energy to be disciples for Jesus, whatever that might contextually mean in the communities we call ‘home.’

I want something for my kids, and all kids in our presbytery, that is more than the childcare (where my kids will be the only ones and if I forget to call in advance, it won’t be there) and allow them to meet kids from other churches.  After all, I work in a small church, and whatever faith development my kids get will have to come from me.  Since we’re one of the larger churches in the presbytery, I bet other folks have the same issue.  What if this is the place where we build that cohesion needed to get a good showing at Triennium, Pres House retreats, Camp, and Montreat? (Maybe even Mo-Ranch, or Ghost Ranch?  Stony Point?  Am I dreaming too big here?)  Why not even at the very minimum, a mini-VBS?  And by the way, I am not too old, or too proud, to do “Energizers.”

I want to bring a taste of Montreat, Triennium, the Big Tent, GA, what-have-you that is awesome and cool in our denomination, so that we are left wanting more.

I want some good guest speakers at least a couple times a year, that lots of us would find really energizing and renewing, and I’d pay a portion of my study allowance to make that happen.  

What if we had a Theology Pub going on in one corner?  Or at least a non-alcoholic version thereof?

What if we set up a Genius Bar?  What if we host clinics on how to get started, or pick up new pointers, on our social media presence and share our favorite new apps for ministry?  

What if we open-source this, and make it super easy for folks to set up workshops on a topic of their expertise?  what if presbytery becomes the way to ‘get your geek on’ (in something other than Parliamentary Procedure).

What if we crowd-source what to do with some of our church properties that sit empty six days a week?  Or more?

What if we learn some new music during the worship?  I’ve noticed our presbytery worship is more often than not, uber-traditional.

What if we do a little arts in ministry?  What if we learned to paint the lectionary, illustrate sermons, or even used video clips as illustrations, to learn about the many quality resources available for this very purpose?

What if we make space to try being a tad emergent, radical, and revolutionary?  And very un-frozen?

What if we find engaging ways to disseminate the newest and best ideas into our congregations?

What if we make it a destination not to be missed.  

For that, I’d even be willing to come in on Saturdays.

+++

So, this is the happy, hopeful part:  that the John Knox Presbytery appears to have many folks with similar dreams for what our time together could be like.  They’ve even proposed some great changes, a new vision, and posted it here: http://www.jknox.org under “Draft JKP 2017 Vision Narrative.”  Way to go! This gives me hope, and renewed energy, even to keep coming to meetings, and maybe even to keep encouraging my elders to come to meetings, if we are to begin working towards this vision.  In the meantime, keep the coffeepot full, and I’ll be dreaming in the back row.

Youth Moment: What's Inside the Pulpit?

Today, we're going to answer what a lot of people in the room might have wondered at some point:  What's stored inside the pulpit?  So, our young helpers, who are eye-level to the pulpit shelves, are going to tell us what's here, and I'll tell you why:

-cough drops, a glass of water, tissues:  all in case I have a cough or cold, or someone else might need to borrow them.
-a hymnal, a Bible, and an extra copy of the Communion liturgy:  things to help lead the worship service.
-extra pens and pencils:  to jot down prayer requests or announcement reminders.
-my keys: because I don't have pockets.

These are all things that are needed to be prepared for anything that comes up during the worship service.  And today's Scriptures talk about the importance of being prepared.  By being prepared for possible trouble, it's less likely that we'll panic when something happens.  And part of being prepared is simply staying calm and not getting too anxious that something bad might happen.  After all, we can always trust in God to help us in times of trouble.  In the meantime, that trust allows us to both meet our responsibilities and enjoy our lives, as God wants us to do!

Keep Calm and Carry On

Isaiah 65:17-25; Isaiah 12; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19

Friends, do you ever worry?  Do you ever let your worries get the best of you?

Have you ever stayed up all night before a conversation you were dreading?  Were you up all night preparing your brilliant defense, so to speak, your witty, sure-fire presentation?  Did you find that when you finally got to that moment, after being up all night, that you were so tired and overwhelmed when you opened your mouth you could only say, “uhhhhhhhhhhh?”  Yep, I’ve been there too.  It would’ve been better to have gotten my sleep and not stressed so much over it.

Let’s take this up a notch:  Have you ever heard of “preppers?”  They were in the Cap Times a few weeks ago, I think, folks that are prepared for nuclear apocalypse, or zombies, or whatever, complete with their own bunkers full of weapons and non-perishable foods, and they draw great security from this, that they feel prepared for any eventuality.

Ah, bless them.  I do keep a little canned food and a flashlight on hand, but I’m not ready to build a bunker just yet.  I don’t even do extreme couponing, even though it’s quite popular with my friends!

Perhaps while I’m a little prepared, like maybe for a big snowstorm or a power outage, I’m not as prepared as I could be, and maybe that’s because I haven’t been that worried about it so far.

++

Each of the Scriptures today addresses people who are worried.  Whether in the time of Isaiah, or the time of Jesus, or the time of Paul, these folks were worried their whole world was about to cave in on them.  And they had good reason to be worried--whether it was war, or famine, or persecution, losing the people they loved, their homes, everything they knew.  And sure, we know situations like that can happen today--how often have they happened, just even this week in the Philippines, or last year in Superstorm Sandy?  We know life is precious, and fragile.

But you know what I love?  I love that these passages today are some of the best passages of comfort and strength out of the whole Bible.  The Bible knows how to talk to worried people!

We can find so much comfort in these verses.  My favorite is in Isaiah 65, “They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord”--that gives me great comfort.  And Chris in the choir has talked about how much she loves the verse in Isaiah 12: Surely God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my might; and will be my savior.  --And indeed, what a beautiful mantra we could hold onto throughout any difficulty in our lives!  And it’ll definitely stick with you today, with the choir anthem and the hymn we’re going to learn later.  It’s been in my head for weeks.

Jesus tells his audience, and us, when you hear of these things,  to not be terrified!  Granted, Jesus doesn’t want us to be naive either, because bad things may indeed happen, then and now, but we shouldn’t become petrified, unable to function or enjoy our lives in the meantime.  When these times come, we can also trust in the Lord and find we are given words and wisdom sufficient to the task, no matter what might happen.

All of the Scriptures tell us today, don’t sit around and do nothing, but also, don’t get obsessed over what may happen.  That’s a great paraphrase of the popular saying, “Keep calm and carry on.”  We can make reasonable preparations, but you can only be and do and respond as best you can in any given moment with what you’ve got.  Since we simply cannot predict the future, neither can we fully prepare for it.  Sometimes we just have to pray, and trust, that we will have what we need when we can’t possibly predict the outcomes.  And in the meantime, don’t get too riled up by all the doomsday prophets and the like, otherwise, we will miss out on the real joy in our lives!  God gave us a good world and we are to care for it and enjoy it with one another!

So I got wondering the other day, do you ever picture Jesus stressing out over something like the feeding of the five thousand the night before?  Do you think he was up all night thinking, “oh, gee, we’ll be so far from town, and which disciple should I put in charge of dinner, and do you think people will know to bring potluck…?”  I don’t know if he did that.  But I will tell you we do have a Bible story of Jesus staying up all night, in the Garden of Gethsemane, when his life was truly at stake, and he was worried.  He was fully human, after all!  At the end, he released control to God and went forth from the garden to the crucifixion.  And God responded by raising Jesus from the dead three days later.  Now really, who else saw that one coming?

Truly, there will be difficult times in our lives, enormously difficult times, when we wish we didn’t have to go through things the way they might play out, when we wish we didn’t even have to get up and face the day.  Sometimes no matter what we do, those trials are inescapable.  But even in such times, remember, that God wants good for us.  God wants healing for us, and wants us to know and be comforted by God’s own presence surrounding us and in us.  Our world isn’t perfect, isn’t always easy, and isn’t always loving, but our God loves us.  Let’s give thanks always for this, that God loves us even when we aren’t always perfect, easy to live with, or all that loving.  We are God’s beloved children; let’s rejoice and be glad!  Thanks be to God!

Prayers This Week:

For all affected by the typhoon, especially in the Philippines

For all who are seeking affordable healthcare

For all who are coping with the aftermath of disasters or violence

Youth Moment: Why Can’t We Be Friends?

We have a lot of kids gathered here today, which is wonderful, and I wonder if everyone knows each other already.  Let’s introduce ourselves.  Now, let’s say I’m friends with this group of kids on my right.  If I also become friends with the kids sitting on my left, does that mean I have to stop being friends with the first group of kids over there?  Of course not.  Friendship grows as it is shared!

I had a friend in kindergarten and first grade, who didn’t know this.  So she told me that I could be her friend one week, and then another girl we knew would be her friend another week.  We had to take turns being her friend.  It was kind of silly, because we all could have been friends together!

Sometimes older brothers and sisters in a family worry when a new baby comes along, because they think that the baby will get more of their parents’ love and they’ll have less.  But in reality, parents’ love grows and expands to include all of their children.  And this is what the Gospel story is about today.  People are worried in a situation that they’ll get less because they had to share so much, when Jesus just wants them to realize that they are all children of God, and to stop their silly argument.  And we will be God’s children forever, both now and in heaven. 

Thanks be to God for the gifts of friendship and love!

Can You Dream BIG Enough?

Luke 20:27-38; Haggai 2:6-9; Psalm 145:1-4, 17-19; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17

I bet when you think about Consecration Sunday, you don’t immediately go to the Gospel story for today.  It’s a little weird, this story about seven brothers who all married the same wife and all died childless, and whose wife is she going to be when they all get to heaven?

Actually, it sounds like a great plot for a soap opera.  You could call it The Days of Our (After)lives, All My Husbands (But None of My Children), My Seven Sons...my point is, it sounds a little scandalous; and the Sadducees point is, wouldn’t it just be more convenient if there was no resurrection, because isn’t that going to be one messed up family fight?  It’d be way better if all the characters just stay dead.

And Jesus is listening to all this, probably thinking the real soap opera drama is what’s going on in front of him.  

The big deal about this marriage thing, which is called Levirate marriage, is that it’s all about money.  Marriage throughout Biblical times became about property acquisition, and a wife was regarded as property.  If the husband died, a brother was required to marry the wife to produce heirs to carry on his brother’s family fortune, and to provide for his brother’s widow, otherwise the widow was out of luck. This meant the brother was left with less of his own inheritance and fortune.  Now the widow is obviously out of luck in this case, (and I think she kind of was all along), but the point is, Jesus isn't worried about money and property and inheritance in heaven.  Jesus is concerned about relationships that are bigger than property lines and inheritance.  Jesus is concerned that people are just valued for who they are, not what wealth and security they can provide.

Jesus is basically saying here, guys, you are not dreaming big enough.  Heaven can’t be bothered with these earthly hangups.  We are all children of God, alive in the Resurrection, and not mere property.  We're meant for something bigger.

++

You remember the song Imagine, by John Lennon?  I was listening to it again this week and have been thinking it over.  It’s really not a godless song, as some have criticized it, but actually a very Godly one.  I especially appreciate the line which says, “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one….”

What if we could dream big enough, and weren’t limited by our own pre-set mindsets?  

When I dream bigger, I realize everything I have belongs to God.  I’m more willing to share, more willing to forgive.  More willing to think outside the box.

In our own lives, we are more than our property, right?  God doesn’t call on us to simply pay the bills and that’s that.  After all, whose heart can be stirred by the monthly bills?  Is your joy and purpose for being when your water and sewage bill arrives at home? ( If so, we need to talk.)  No, but the joy comes in watering flowers and seeing them grow, or seeing the kids splash around in the backyard on a hot summer day, tubtime when they’re little, or even all those showers when they’re teenagers.  We can be proud of a fine-looking house, but chances are good we sacrificed for that house so that it could be a home where our loved ones gather and are fed and nurtured and where everyone inside knows they are loved and safe.

Church is more than an hour on Sunday mornings, we know.  But, “Church” used to be held in people’s homes--the places where they ate, went to the bathroom, washed the dishes, slept, read, sometimes fought, and where they raised their children; often where they gathered as friends and maybe even where they earned their livelihood.  The connection between worship and daily life were unmistakable.

On this Consecration Sunday, are we dreaming big enough?  Sure, the lights and mortgage need to be paid.  But why?  Is that where it all ends?  No, of course not.  Everything we do here we need to do for mission, to make God’s presence and God’s kingdom, a kingdom of good news, known here on this earth and all around us.  Sure, pay the light bill--in fact, run it up because we’ve got people filling this place, filling the rooms, using up the toilet paper and paper towels and such.  Even clean that greasetrap some more--and that is the number one least glamorous thing in our yearly budget--because we’ve had to wash so many dishes, because so many people were welcomed in and fed here, not just feeding their bodies but feeding their minds and spirits here.

So yep, let’s pay that snowplow bill--so people can find a home of welcome here all year round.  Let’s pay to maintain our lawnmower, so our lawn can be filled with people enjoying God’s good creation, whether playing sports or listening to a lawn concert or planting flowers or watching the wildlife go by. Let’s even maybe pay off the mortgage on this house of worship early, so we can start spending that money building houses for people who need them.

Let’s ask ourselves, what is this lightbulb, that chair, this table, that greasetrap doing to advance God’s reign of love and welcome in this corner of the world?  Don’t let your dreams stop at the property line.  Dream bigger, break down the barriers, and together let us be living, fully alive, and joyful children of God. Amen!

Prayers this week:

People of the Philippines and others suffering from the storm

For all struggling with addiction, and those who love and care for them

For All The Saints (Even The Rascally Ones)...

Luke 19:1-10
look this up on bible.oremus.org or biblegateway.com

On the occasion of All Saints’ Sunday, and the dedication of our new hymnals

In between our All Saint’s day liturgy and dedicating our new hymnals and celebrating communion and everything else we do this day, lies the Gospel story of a man named Zaccheus.

Now, Zaccheus is described as a tax collector--and in those days one might just as well have added, a corrupt tax collector.  It was understood that they all were.  In fact the Gospel says he was the chief tax collector, and he was rich, which meant that he was really corrupt--because they didn’t pay tax collectors all that great; they earned their money by extorting extra off the peasants of the land.

Zaccheus was hardly righteous, a most unlikely saint.

And yet somehow he is a beloved little villain in the Bible--maybe because he was so short, or maybe because he was up in that tree, or perhaps because of that famous children’s song.  Sing with me if you know it:

Zaccheus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he.

He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see.

And as the Savior passed that way He looked up in the tree, and said:

Zaccheus, come down, for I’m going to your house today.

I’m going to your house today.

(That’s probably the second song I learned in Sunday School when I was about three years old, right after ‘Jesus Loves Me.’)

So you might even say he’s the character not that you love to hate, but that you almost hate to love.

Ah, but there’s the problem.  The crowd gathered there knows all about Zaccheus, and they don’t love him.  He’s done them wrong.  They’ve got his number, and he’s making Jesus look either naive or incredulous, hanging out with him.  Maybe they’re even trying to warn him: Look out Jesus, you’re about to get scammed here.  He’s no good.

Then, in front of the crowd, Zaccheus says he’ll give half his possessions to the poor and pay back four times as much of whatever he’s defrauded anyone.  This means Zaccheus in on the hook for a lot of dough, and he’s about to become a very poor man.

And that is perhaps a better definition of the saints, those all-too-human and fallible, maybe even rascally, folks we know and love.  People that aren’t perfect, but have known love and shown love.  People who have not matched every footstep as Jesus’ disciple, but who still try to follow as best they can, knowing that it is not their perfection that is counted, but God’s grace.

On this All Saints’ Day, we remember those whom we have loved who have died and gone to their heavenly home before us.  Sometimes we might wonder, particularly if our loved one had his or her troubles, will we see them in heaven?  Yet I believe God’s grace is sufficient, and finds even the most rascally ones to transform.  By that day, we will all see with new eyes, and all that blurs our vision now will fall away, and all we will see is love for one another.  That task has been completed, because we are reconciled to God in the resurrection.  And knowing God’s grace for us, grace while we were still sinners and hadn’t done one thing to deserve it, can transform our lives right now, causing us to do the most generous and amazing things for others, even if nobody else thinks we ever would.

Jesus says, the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.  Not the perfect, not the self-righteous, but the lost.  Zaccheus had it all, but he was so very, very, lost.  Whether we are half as lost, or even if we’re twice as lost, there is hope in this life.  In the most unlikely times and to the most unlikely people, Jesus shows up.  Jesus might even say, “I simply must stay at your home today.”  And in the hosting, we will find joy.  It may not make us rich, at least not as the world counts it, but we will find joy.  Thanks be to God!

Prayers this week:

Those struggling this week with a reduction of food stamps

For those transitioning to long-term care facilities, or to Hospice

For those providing care for a loved one with a long-term or terminal illness

Credo: This I Believe

Recently a seminary classmate from my home presbytery was called to a church nearby and mentioned that he had liked my Statement of Faith which I prepared for ordination. I was touched by this, and thought it might be time to go find it again amidst all my ministry papers, and I share it with you here:

Credo

I cling to the church reformed

        And always, still, needing to be reformed

                    Fallible, broken, but worthy of change

                                God alone may be capable of perfection

                                                                    But we are not all for lost.

I believe Holy Scripture is the Word and Event of God in our lives

        Also broken by human doing, despite our best doing

                    Sometimes contradictory and not always clear

                                But also, by and through and with and in God

                                                                                Complete and whole.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

        The Lord, the Giver of Life

                    That she does, indeed, give Life

                                And breath; that she stirs to life

                                            That which seems beyond all hope of being stirred.

I believe in Christ, who came not only to save, despite death

                    But also came to teach us, in life, how to go on living

                                                                    And this, in its own way, also saves.

I believe in Christ

        Speaking truth as well as reconciliation

                    Justice as well as peace

                                Disrupting human convention

                                            Crucified for his ‘sins’

                                                        Would Christ be welcome in our churches today?

I believe in Christ

        Incarnate among us

                    As a human, still facing human shortcomings

                                Foreign women taught him love of neighbor

                                            Perhaps having other things to learn

                                                        By becoming fully us

                                                                    Yet also intimately God

I believe that in worship we encounter the Holy;

        In water, wine, and bread, God touches us still.

                                Here Christ holds us and heals us;

                                            Here the Spirit reconciles us to one another

                                                        In the midst of bitter church conflicts, remember:

                                                                                We are all still standing on holy ground.

I believe in God who created heavens and the earth

All that is, though seen and unseen

        Though heard and unheard, powerful and vulnerable

I believe that God did not walk off

        Leaving us to our own devices

                    That God knew we couldn’t make it on our own

                                And stayed with us, creating, redeeming, sustaining

I believe God is still speaking

        Moving, changing, inspiring

                    Beyond class, race, or gender

                                God calls whom God wills.

I believe God wills for God’s people—

        All God’s people—

                    Justice, freedom, and wholeness

                                That the world alone cannot provide, and often works against

                                            That the church alone cannot provide, and often works against

                                                        God has not yet given up, despite us.

I believe God is not done with us yet,

        Even when life be too painful for words;

                    That in this world we can choose to go on living

                                Or to go on dying

                                            In that desolation God is there

                                                        Even when no one else is

                                                                    And I believe that even when

                                                                                we cannot see the path ahead,                                            

                                                                                                                    There is one.

I do not need to believe

        That God is all-powerful,

                    or all-good

                                or all-just

                                            or all-knowing

                                                        to believe in God.

In truth, I need only to believe that God is Greater.