Montclair Presbyterian Church

Yesterday was the Sunday for the Children’s and Youth Pageant at our church.  There were more than 30 participants in the pageant who ranged in age from 3 months old (the baby Jesus was a live baby, little Jennica, who was born in September) to 17 years old.  To say it was like herding cats would be a gross understatement!  As the rehearsal was happening on Sunday morning before the service, it was utter chaos for the first 15 minutes as kids were arriving in costumes and sharing costumes and changing costumes and not arriving and, in some cases, literally bouncing off the walls!  There was music that went with the pageant and it was the first time the Jazz trio was rehearsing with the kids and the kids were forgetting the words and then someone remembered the huge poster board with the words and so a parent volunteered to hold up the “cue cards” and the rehearsal continued.  The sound was not quite right and microphones were adjusted and it was time for the big event.

Anyone looking at the chaotic scene before church would have certainly questioned the sanity of the one whose bright idea it was to try to pull something so ambitious off in the midst of the busiest season of the year.  Anyone looking at the chaotic scene before church would have questioned how it could be good for kids to have to learn lines and learn songs and learn where to stand or sit and get dressed up in costume and have to sit still and focus and listen to others when they are already wired to the hilt.  Anyone trying to park within a half a mile of the church was most certainly questioning the benefit of trying to do something that involved so many at a time that is so busy.

Why do a pageant in the midst of this time of year?  If you had been there yesterday morning you would understand why.  Out of the chaos something magical happens.  One might even say out of the chaos one sees the miraculous.  Maybe the word miraculous should be saved for cancer that suddenly disappears or someone saving another person’s life or a story of giving that is beyond our comprehension.  But on pageant Sunday, somehow miraculous is the word that comes to mind.  Five little star babies dressed in pink ballerina outfits squirm on the steps and then come to attention when it’s time to sing and they open their mouths wide (even while making faces) and sing the most beautiful sound.  Joseph sits down next to Mary and sighs the biggest sigh and leans over and puts his elbow on his knee and looks completely perplexed (probably because he is trying to figure out how long he has to sit there!).  The narrators look and sound as if they are 20 instead of 13 and 15.  The stars are transformed from 9 and 10 year olds into miniature adults who know how to project and act.  The paparazzi belt out their lines and go from being shy boys to leaders.  The bodyguards are just plain cool.  The shepherds look as though they really are surprised and their faces convince everyone of their openness.  And when they all open their mouths at the same time to sing their songs it really does sound as if there are angels in our midst.  Even the star babies who are singing “expelsous” instead of “excelsios” sound perfect.

Every person sitting in the congregation is yanked out of their own chaos just for a few minutes and reminded of the miraculous.  No wonder we do pageants at this crazy time of year.

Not only has December arrived, but so have Winter storms, shorter days, and animals whose fur has grown thick with the anticipation of colder weather.  For those of us involved in church, the Season of Advent has also arrived.  The word “advent” means “coming.”  Yesterday we celebrated the first Sunday of Advent which is always the Sunday that encourages us to look for signs that God/the Light is indeed breaking into our chaotic world.

When I think about God/Light breaking into our world, I am reminded of one of my professors during my time at Princeton Seminary who taught a course on God and Human Suffering.  He shared with us his image of God in the world.  He described God sitting in the second story windowsill of a house, legs dangling out, fingers trying to hold on to the sill while leaning so far out of the window.  (Yes, this is obviously an anthropomorphized image of God, but hang with me.)  He went on to say that while God is leaning so far out of the second story window, She is also trying to get the attention of the world walking by on the street below.  She shouts, she tosses things down, she waves her arms, she does whatever necessary to get the people to glance up and look and listen.  Now and then, according to the professor, people see and hear and take notice and actually participate with God in bringing healing and change and justice to the world.  While it may not be a perfect image, I took that course 22 years ago and I am still captured by it.  Especially during this season of Advent when we are told to look for signs of God’s incarnation into our world.

A week ago today I was flying home from Argentina after a trip to Buenos Aires for vacation and study leave.  On the last leg of the flight I was sitting in the middle seat of the exit row.  Sitting on my left next to the window was a man who was traveling alone.  When I sat down, I greeted him briefly and then I “put on” my airplane self.  After 21 years of being a Presbyterian pastor, I have learned not to engage my airplane seat mates in conversation.  When I was first ordained, I engaged everyone I met in conversation!  I couldn’t wait until that part in the conversation when I could reveal that I was an ordained pastor!  What ended up happening on airplanes, though, was that when I got to that part and told the person what I did, the person heard that as an invitation to spend the remainder of the flight talking about him or herself.  You would be shocked at some of the things total strangers revealed to me in those conversations.  Despite the fact that we were not alone or in a private situation, people treated it as a confessional and I heard all of the ways in which they had deceived their spouses or cheated on their taxes or embezzled money from work or had terrible thoughts.  On one flight I remember a man telling me about an ongoing affair he was having and how he felt badly for his wife but not badly enough to stop the affair.  When the flight ended and he finally stopped talking, he thanked me for listening and then walked off the plane feeling much better.  That was the turning point for me.  I was no longer willing to let someone I had never met confess and feel better because I was a total stranger and there was no need for them to change in any way.  From that time on, I created an airplane self that does not engage in conversation.

On my flight last week, though, the man who was sitting next to me was carrying some kind of heavy load.  I could feel it.  He slept a little and then I think he started to pray (he didn’t make any noise, but you know how you can just tell sometimes?).  In the middle of the flight he texted someone.  I committed seat mate sin and snuck a glance at what he was writing and all I saw were the words “praying for a miracle.”  I knew it!  I knew he was carrying some kind of heavy burden.  I wanted with all of my heart to turn to him and ask him if he was okay but my airline self wrestled my other self to the ground and would not permit conversation of any kind!  I did not talk to him until it was time to leave and I wished him a good trip.

The Light was trying so hard to break in to the world through me and I refused.  God was practically falling out of the window to get me to open my mouth and share this man’s burden and I refused.  Who are we waiting for this Advent?  We are the ones through whom God becomes incarnate.  Or not.  Today is a new day.  I, for one, will be looking for the ways in which God wants to shine through me to reach others.  How about you?  How is God trying to get your attention today or this week?

Some days I overwhelmingly feel the kind of sorrow I imagine God feels.  One of my professors in seminary described God as “weeping” and the image has been with me ever since.  When I heard yesterday about the 16 year old Pakistani girl who was killed by her parents for looking at a boy and when I heard this morning about 6 billion dollars being spent on the election in the US, all I could do was think about our weeping God and how things have gone so awry.

The news report I heard yesterday about the 16 year old girl in the Pakistani part of Kashmir was that a boy passed by the girl’s house.  The girl’s father had warned her not to look at boys and when the boy passed by the house, the girl looked.  The father grabbed the girl and beat her for the shame she might eventually bring on the family.  Apparently, the beating wasn’t enough.  Some combination of mother and father then grabbed acid and poured it all over the girl literally melting her hair and head down to her skull bones.  The mother’s response when asked about it was “It was her time to die.  It was her destiny.”  This is as stark an example as I can imagine of religion gone wrong.  There is no God who would direct parents to so violently harm and kill their child over any kind of “truth.”  What is particularly egregious in this case is that they were abusing and killing her because of what she “might do” in the future.  They were afraid she might bring dishnour on the family eventually.  And this event doesn’t bring dishonour?  The mother and father have both been jailed and we can only hope that they will receive the harshest punishment possible.  These Muslim parents have not understood the essence of Islam if they think they are justified in their abuse.  Neither do Christian parents understand the essence of Christianity if they abuse their children in order to get obedience from them.  My heart aches this day for all the ways in which terrible people use religion to justify their own cruelty and abuse.

When a different news report this morning said that estimates are finally out regarding how much money has been spent on this year’s election, I wanted to weep.  Six billion dollars.  Billion.  Six.  A true democracy is not built upon wealth and so we can be fairly certain we are no longer enjoying a democracy.  We have staggering numbers of people right here in the US who are homeless and hungry and yet we are going to accept six billion dollars being spent on the spread of misinformation and malicious lies?  How much of the six billion was spent on “attack ads”?  Here we are one day before the election and there are still significant numbers of people who are confused about what is fact and what is fiction.  There are still significant numbers of people who feel as though there is an attempt to prevent them from voting.  There are still significant numbers of people for whom English is not a first language, who have lived in the US for years, who are hard-working and good citizens, and who find it too difficult to read a ballot in English.  The deepest concern, however, is the idea that corporations are treated like individual people in regard to free speech.  This election was the first we have seen since the passage of Citizens United.  Even more troublesome than the amount of money spent on misinformation and malicious lies is the question about who owes what to whom now that so much money has been spent trying to elect “them.”  Money is rarely given freely so now we are in a situation where those elected owe those who paid to have them elected.  So much for democracy.

If we have not learned anything else in this horrific election cycle, I hope to God we have learned that we must overturn Citizens United and restore our democracy.

If we have not learned anything else in the history of religions, I hope to God we have learned that we must protect all children from the fanaticism of their parents.

As God weeps this day, I weep with her.

In last week’s blog, I mentioned that I would be leading a Women’s Retreat over the weekend on the theme “Go Out Into the World in Peace.”  One of the first things I said to the women gathered as we began our retreat together was that I am not an expert in peace.  My life is often as harried and stressful as anyone else’s and yet I took on the task of facilitating deeper conversation about what it means to go out into the world in peace.  The first evening I had them list words or phrases that they thought defined or at least described peace.  In addition, I had them tear out images from magazines that spoke to them of peace.  We then laid out all of the images on 3 different tables so we could all see the images.  As I predicted, a number of the words and images had to do with stillness, tranquility, solitude, quiet, beauty, and rest.

The 3 primary content areas for the weekend were focused on peace with self, peace with others, and peace with God.  What the women did not know when they signed up for the retreat was that the weekend would be an experience of rolling up our sleeves and getting to work.  For diving into the idea of peace with self, we looked at the scripts we were handed in our families of origins.  We did some work on looking at the scripts we were handed, how we have re-written those scripts and what part of our scripts we have not yet written.  From there we talked about two avenues for examining ourselves.  One avenue is the 4th step in 12 step programs, taking a fearless moral inventory.   The 2nd avenue is what theologian Walter Burghardt called “taking a long, loving look at the real.”  Part of what we are trying to identify in ourselves are those things we might be holding against ourselves or carrying around unnecessarily.  We talked about bricks and how if you set down one brick (something you hold against yourself), pretty soon you are building walls.  Part of doing the work of peace is trying to keep the bricks out of your life and your relationships.

We talked more about bricks in the context of peace with others.  We looked at mind maps and talked about how much of the way we live in the world stems from unconscious reactions or triggers.  Living into peace with others includes being able to identify our buttons or our judgments or our refusals to hear something different from someone.  When we become aware, we are better able to choose our responses.  Most of us are not great at identifying our emotions in the midst of interactions with others.  If we could learn to identify emotions that arise, we could make more conscious choices in terms of how we respond.

In our third content area, we talked about peace with God and did some work on identifying our early images of God and how they have changed or remained the same.  We also did some reflection on things we might be holding against God or things God might be holding against us.  Once again, awareness was a key aspect of living in peace with God.

Our day culminated in a reconciliation service to which each one of us came with a rock or stone in hand.  The rock was a symbol of any bricks we are carrying or holding onto in relationship with self, others or God.  Each one was invited to either lay the rock down  or to continue to carry the rock.  Being ready to lay the rock down implied a readiness to forgive someone or let go of a memory or hurt or the commitment to do those things.  Holding on to the rock meant there was still more work to do and the rock was taken as a reminder and encouragement to do the work.

By the final morning, we had a service together in which we heard the story of Moses’ encounter with God in the burning bush.  The invitation to Moses was to stop, to pay attention, to listen and see with new ears and eyes and to go away strengthened by the encounter.  Maybe going out into the world in peace is really about encounter.  If we will stop long enough to pay attention to ourselves, others and God, we just might be transformed and better equipped for the tasks ahead.  Peace might just be a verb.

Next weekend I am leading our annual Women’s Retreat on the theme “Go Out Into the World In Peace.”  For weeks I have been pondering, cogitating, germinating and chewing on various aspects of peace.  What exactly do I know about peace or what has my experience been of peace?  What do you know or what have you experienced of peace?  What I have realized in my pondering is that we seem to be under the impression that war and peace are polar opposites and that they are either/or propositions.  In fact, I wonder how many people would define peace as the absence of war and define war as the absence of peace?  Instead, I think both are much more nuanced and to some extent complicated than we imagine.

Do you remember when Sarah Palin made the comment about Russia during the last election?  After her comment, reporters went out and interviewed Americans about geography.  Those interviews were then posted on the internet.  Watching them was deeply disturbing though I am sure many people also laughed heartily as they listened to answers that were beyond ignorant.  Sometimes I envision similar interviews being done about war.  The questions could be about America and war.  My guess is the answers would be as disturbing in their ignorance as were the answers about geography.  During the first Presidential Debate two weeks ago I was reminded about how bizarre the United States is when it comes to the defense budget.  Republicans tend to run on a platform that includes increases in an already inflated and overblown defense budget.  As a result, the Republican candidate can usually claim to be “tougher” on terrorism or evil or whatever the enemy is named and therefore willing to engage in whatever war is necessary.  The Democratic candidate, on the other hand, tends to run on a platform that includes a decrease in defense spending, a withdrawal or reduction in troops around the world and a more efficient armed forces.  The Democratic candidate or incumbent as is the case this year, can claim to be tough while at the same time attempting to achieve peace.  The conversation itself is so misleading because it assumes that war is about armed combat and peace is ending or refraining from armed combat.  If only it were that simple.

What do you know about the US military presence and action in Honduras, for example?  Do you know that we are increasing troops in Honduras and that the DEA is also involved in armed action in Honduras?  Are we at war with Honduras?  Absolutely not and in fact, most US officials would tell you that the US military presence is all about protecting Honduran interests and peace.  How exactly does that work when the US is the largest importer to Honduras and exporter from Honduras?  The concepts of war and peace are far more nuanced that we have allowed in conversation for some time.

I am not sure yet what I will have to say about peace at the retreat I am leading this weekend.  One thing I will not say, however, is that peace is the absence of all conflict.  We want to believe that idea and we hope against all hope for a time and a day and a life that would be absent conflict.  Whatever peace is, I know it does not simply appear or fall from the sky or come wrapped as a gift.  Peace is something for which you have to be willing to roll up your sleeves and get your knees and hands dirty.  It requires work that is exhausting in every way and leaves one feeling spent.  Peace is not for the fainthearted.  We need to find a different way to portray it so that we can do away with the misconception that peace is about blue skies and sunflower filled fields and flute music playing the background.  Maybe at the retreat this weekend we will craft a new definition for a word that has lost some of its meaning.

For two years now I have served as Interim Head of Staff at Montclair Presbyterian Church in Oakland.  When I was interviewing for the position, the Interim Search Committee was telling me there is a wide diversity of theology among those in the congregation.  My response was to smile politely and nod my head in understanding because, after all, I was somewhat familiar with the congregation.  In hindsight, I had no idea what they were really saying!  What I heard them say was instantly filtered through the lens of my own experiences in a variety of churches at that point.  Diversity?  Sure, I know diversity…I am so appreciative now of how honest they were being then about who they really are as a congregation.

This wonderfully creative, sharply intelligent, deeply spiritual, amazingly artistic group of people are far more diverse than any congregation I have served in my 21 years of ordained ministry.  One of the first inklings of their theological diversity came up related to prayer.  Right after I arrived, I began visiting with some of the older people in the church who were either not able to get to church or who were hospitalized.  It is second nature to me to pray for someone with whom I am visiting and so I was surprised when some of the people I was visiting asked me not to pray!  They explained that prayer was not meaningful for them or they simply didn’t believe in it.  This happened several times in the first couple of months and I realized that prayer was not many of them were used to experiencing.  As I did with many other topics, I started asking people what their experience with prayer was in the congregation.  The majority of people said they are uncomfortable praying themselves and many people said they are simpy uncomfortable with prayer as a practice because it seems too much like magical thinking.

As I was listening to various thoughts and opinions about prayer, I was also hearing that the congregation was feeling disconnected from one another and they were missing their feeling of connectedness and community.  After talking with the Celebration Committee (the committee responsible for overseeing all aspects of worship), I began doing “Prayers of the People” during the Sunday service.  For weeks afterward, there were several people who came out of the service with tears in their eyes who said they were so moved by the prayers.  There were also people who came out expressing their discomfort and the fact that when we do the prayers, the service takes more time.  The criers outweighed those who were uncomfortable.  I prefaced the prayer time by saying something about community life and how important it is for us to share our joys and concerns with one another so we can pray for each other during the week.  It took some time to include those who were reticent to share, but over time many people have participated in sharing their joys and concerns.  Almost instantly, the community felt more connected because they were hearing what was going on for people.

The struggle with prayer continues to be about what we think we are doing.  When someone asks us to pray for their friend with cancer, do we think God is going to cure that person of cancer?  Is that how we pray?  Recently someone asked for prayer for a friend who is pregnant with triplets and having complications.  I wanted with all my being to pray for the safety and health of those babies and the mother, but when I actually prayed for her I asked that she receive the best care that can be offered and that God would be with the babies and the parents and provide them with what they need.  When someone who does not like the prayer time was expressing concern about what we are doing, I asked the person to pay careful attention to what we were saying.  “If you hear me engaging in magical thinking, please let me know because that would be helpful feedback.  I think what I am doing is asking God to give each person enough strength for each day to handle whatever comes.  It sounds different for each person and situation but I think that’s usually how I pray.  There might be the exceptional moment when I feel stirred to pray for a miracle and I usually know when that happens.”  Are we supposed to pray conservatively or with abandon?

I find I continue to walk a fine line with my own understanding of prayer.  On the one hand, I am one of those people who believes deeply that all things are possible.  On the other hand, I have had some harsh experiences in which I understand that God does not often intervene in the natural course of life.  What is also true is that prayer encompasses much more than what we do on Sunday mornings in community.  A great deal of prayer is about listening and discerning from day to day.  My hope is that I have been able to model a relationship with prayer and God that is not wrapped up and tied neatly in a bow but is more like shredded newspaper stuffed in the cracks of a wailing wall with deep hopes and longings and fears expressed all at the same time.  May it be so.

Yesterday in church I preached my first sermon in 21 years on Original Sin.  The DOCTRINE of Original Sin.  I know, what possessed me?  Most of my colleagues were preaching about children and Jesus and I was obsessing about Original Sin.  What possessed me was that a woman asked me and some others from my congregation this question: “You’re not a church that’s going to try to save me are you?”  We all quickly assured her that we were not that kind of church.  But the question keeps nagging me.  If we aren’t that kind of church, what kind of church are we?  The more I pondered the question of salvation, the more I found myself wandering all the way back to Original Sin.  Honestly I don’t think I have spent much time over the years examining what I believe about Original Sin.

What I found myself worrying about as I was preparing the sermon is whether or not this particular doctrine would end up being the “crucial” card in a house of cards.  If we begin to question or change or refute the doctrine of Original Sin, would we be in danger of collapsing the whole theological house of Christianity?  Not at all cavalierly, I have decided the answer is “NO!”  While we may be in danger of dismantling a particular room in the house, we are not in danger of collapsing the house.

Honestly, I don’t believe that God created a perfect world – ever, anywhere.  Good?  Yes.  Perfect?  No.  I also don’t believe that because Eve and Adam ate a forbidden fruit that they then brought destruction upon all of us.  I don’t buy the idea that Adam’s seed turned bad and now we are all born with bad seed.  I have never understood the idea that Eve was the temptress.  Though I am not a fan of snakes, I think the serpent got a bad rap.  But mostly, I don’t believe God is a punishing God that in anger threw Adam and Eve out of the Garden.  I like some of the Jewish midrash around this story that says rather than being a story about sin and evil entering the world, it’s more likely a rite of passage story.  This could very well be the first story about leaving home and beginning one’s adult life!

While I could go on and on about the things I don’t believe about this story, it’s more difficult to articulate what I do believe.  One thing is for sure.  There are days when it seems as if evil is rampant and winning in the world.

And then I am reminded by Love to look up, look around and see the goodness that is in me and in those all around me.  There have been very few times in my life when I have looked for the goodness and just not seen it.  Usually when I look for the goodness in others I see it.  Maybe that’s the biggest problem I have with the doctrine of Original Sin.  If we look for what is wrong or spoiled or sinful or bad in others, we will surely see it.  Like in the Garden, the choice is ours…

When I was in college (a liberal arts Christian college, mind you) and then in seminary, it often seemed as if my entire faith was a bit like a house of cards.  As this professor or that professor would challenge the ideas and beliefs that I had innocently made my own because someone had taught them to me, there were times when I feared the whole house might tumble down.  As a result, I was reticent to begin tinkering with the individual cards.  Over time, though, as I have grown and matured and experienced God far more tangibly, I have removed certain cards from the house and have been pleasantly surprised that the house remains standing even though it looks different!

Lately I have been thinking about the doctrine of Original Sin.  In the past few months I baptized a baby and an adult at different times and I found myself feeling disturbed by the question I am supposed to ask about turning from evil.  This question is a hold-over from the doctrine of original sin.  Simply put, original sin is the idea that when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden their sin became the sin of every human.  St. Augustine took it even further and he said sin is transmitted through sexual intercourse and so every human is born sinful because of the transmission.  Sin is a disease in other words.

If every person is born fully sinful, you can see why there was a need for baptism and for salvation.  Jesus became the answer for what to do about all of humanity being under the curse of sin.  Jesus would die in order to take away the stain of original sin.  And so it goes.  The Catholic Church even decided over time that if babies who were born died without being baptized, they would not go to heaven.  Initially it was thought they would go to hell but too many people objected so eventually it was said they went to a baby limbo somewhere in between heaven and hell.

As a child and teenager, I bought the idea of original sin hook, line and sinker.  It explained the fact that no matter how hard I tried to be perfect, I just couldn’t sustain it for any length of time.  For years I have been wondering about the doctrine.  The appeal of original sin is that it explains why no person is perfect.  Not you, not me, not any person.  But what is perfection?  Who gets to define it?  And just because a person “sins” at one time or another, does that mean they are sinful?  How does living with this view of humanity and this view of God impact us over time?  On the one hand, we are created in the image of God and on the other hand we are born in sin and remain in sin until we are saved (except that the flaw in that line of thinking is that even after people are saved, they still sin…).  So what’s it all about anyway?

The doctrine of original sin is one of the bottom cards.  If we pull it out or tinker with it, what will happen to the rest of the house of Christianity?  I have decided to preach a sermon on it this coming Sunday so I hope to find out.  Is it a foundational card or has it been an extra all this time and we’ve just been too afraid to find out?  I’ll let you know next week!

Yesterday in the sermon I preached I told the congregation that I believe the church is in the language business.  We are learning and teaching and striving to live a language of faith.  The reason the church is in the language business is that living a life of faith is not something that comes naturally to us.  The language of faith is not our primary language.  It may seem that way to some, particularly those who have grown up in a church tradition and community.  The reality is that for those of us who have grown up in the United States, we have a primary language that is much more focused on self.  We are taught early on that our society values self-reliance, self-protection, self-reflection, self-sufficiency, self-motivation, self-made success, and self-care.  Many, if not most of us, are brought up speaking the language of power, position, prestige, prosperity, competition, and survival.  The language of faith is language of community over and above self, of collaboration rather than competition, and sharing over prosperity.  Truly, the language of faith is a foreign language for those of us who have been reared in this country.

If only it were as simple as learning and teaching and living a language.  The church universal and individual denominations are at war over the language of faith.  Words matter and there is deep and meaningful disagreement over words that describe God and Jesus and theology.  An example of what I am talking about is the word “salvation.”  Some churches and denominations consider this word to be central to their beliefs and identity and purpose.  In the United States, the churches who believe in the centrality of this word seem to interpret it as referring to individuals.  Are you saved?  Have you been saved?  The concept of individual salvation would have been foreign to Jesus.  Ironic isn’t it?

None of us should be surprised that the fight over the language of faith has shifted into the political arena.  Unfortunately, it just gets far more confusing because of all of the inconsistencies and accusations.  Think for a minute about what you have been hearing about self versus community.  About collaboration instead of competition, about sharing over individual prosperity.  Neither political party seems to have a thorough grasp of the language of faith and yet both use it when it suits a particular purpose.  As one who has studied the Bible a fair amount, I am not sure either political party understands how truly radical the gospel is and how cavalierly they choose to use it for their own purposes.  If the Democrats are serious about wanting to consider “the least of these” and have the community take care of it’s weakest and poorest members, they have a long way to go.  President Obama’s educational policy called “Race to the Top” was the antithesis of the idea that all should have access and all should be given opportunity.  If the Republicans are serious about “Family Values” and about morality, they need to examine their economic policies and read the Bible as though they were Pharisees to see what Jesus might say to them.  How exactly does excluding immigrants, LGBT people, and the poor  coincide with anything Jesus ever did or talked about directly?

No person and no community and no organization is perfect.  My own philosophy is that I would much rather spend my time with those who know they are imperfect than with those who are trying to act as if they know all and possess the ultimate truth. At least there is hope for change and improvement.  Regardless of who we are and which church (or not) we attend, we would do well to remember to watch our language.  Language matters.

One of my pastor friends has been at the same church for almost 20 years.  When he arrived at the church it was experiencing a slow decline.  You would never know when you walk through the doors today!  The church is alive with people of all ages, including the “missing generations” in most churches comprised of those in their 20’s and 30’s.  Not only do you see all ages in this church, you also see more ethnic diversity than in most Presbyterian churches as well as theological diversity.  Though my friend and his church are rarely spoken of and certainly not being written of in every church magazine as the lastest, greatest success story, they might just be one of the churches growing most quickly with younger members.  Perhaps the reason they have not been featured as a success story is that the pastor is gay and they warmly welcome into all aspects of their church life anyone who is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.  They are not identified primarily as a “gay church” (I have yet to figure out what that means), but experience lovely diversity of all kinds.

When I talked with my friend about how the turnaround happened and what has led to their exciting renewal of life and energy, he seemed fairly certain it had to do with the intentional substitution of one word for another.  He animatedly talks about how when he arrived at the church, they were stuck in their thinking.  The word “scarcity,” though rarely used, was at the heart of their thinking and acting.  They were focused on what they did not have and what they were slowly losing.  He decided he needed to help them refocus so he introduced the word “abundance” to them.  He began to point out all of the places and ways they were experiencing abundance.  Over time, they began to be less afraid, less cautious, and less stingy.  Over the years, they have been able to live into the abundance they now see and experience and they have learned beautifully how to share their abundance and invite others to participate in it.

Two little words, scarcity and abundance, have been at the heart of the transformation of an entire church.  Yes, I know, it’s as old as the hills, the idea that we live our lives looking at the glass half empty or the glass half full and which ever way we see it determines so much about us.  But, I find it compelling to hear the story of an entire group of people who, by shifting their focus with the help of their leader, have been transformed.

It’s too bad this great church has not been featured by the church magazines that love to write about church success stories.  It’s too bad the major newspapers don’t pick up their story.  They have something to say to all of us in the midst of this election season that on its best days is depressing and on its worst days signals the end life as we know it.  Imagine what would happen if the leaders of our country would shift the focus from scarcity and begin to focus on abundance.  Imagine!

At the very least, you and I can daily attempt to shift our own focus.  Most of us have not experienced the kind of scarcity that we fear so deeply.  Most of us worry so much about keeping hold of what we have that we have never been able to experience the abundance.  Do you want to join me in beginning to live from a place of abundance?  Are you ready to be transformed?