Sent Away

On my morning walk recently, I listened to a podcast by Rob Bell, who pointed out that in Greek the word translated forgiven can also be translated “sent away.”  I was intrigued, and spent the rest of my walk reflecting on this.  I pulled out my Greek New Testament and lexicon to check it out for myself when I got into the church an hour or so later.  What does it mean that my sins are sent away?  We talk about forgiving and forgetting, but do we really do it?  Do we really believe God does it?  I think sometimes we think our sins are still hanging out there.  I know I have a hard time forgetting my own.

As I continued to reflect, I thought of my experience as Lena’s mom.  Lena suffers with mental illness, and when her medication is off, she can be very hateful.  Life becomes very difficult in our house.  Sometimes her therapist or psychiatrist will ask me what set her off, or what she said.  They’ll wonder if she’s done this before.  I’m sure they get quite irritated with me at times, because my answer is usually, “I don’t remember the details.  I know she was mad, but I don’t remember why, or what she said.  I know she’s had rough times in the past, but I can’t give you details.”  I explain I do this to protect myself– I can’t dwell on the challenging times.  I suspect the professionals get frustrated with my response.  The reality, though, is that I really don’t remember.  It’s not that I can’t remember anything.  I can tell you in great detail about the times she has been patient and supportive when ministry has disrupted our plans.  I remember well the night we got home, exhausted, and there was a message on the machine that required me to go out again.  I was trying to figure out how to tell Lena we had to go back out into the bad weather even though we were exhausted.  When I turned around, she was standing there holding the coats we’d just taken off.  “What hospital are we going to now, Mom?”  That I remember.  I remember the times she’s fixed a meal for me, or given me a back rub.  I don’t remember, though, how often she rages, or what she says, or what triggers it.  The memories of the bad time are sent away.

I think that’s what happens when we come to God seeking forgivenss of sins.  They are sent away.  God doesn’t remember.  That’s Good News.

 

New Life

Last fall I planted some bulbs in my back yard by the patio.  I now have little purple crocuses blooming out there.  When the first one bloomed, there was still snow in the back yard and drifts in the front yard.  It’s been a long winter, and those first flowers seemed to come out of nowhere, a sign of hope and of new life.  Those little flowers lifted our spirits and reminded us that winter would soon be over and spring was coming.  Lena and I are looking forward to discovering what other flowers will soon be blooming out there, and it looks like the previous owners of our home had planted a number of spring flowers.

Of course, after teasing us this week with warming weather, it’s now cold again.  But this time the cold doesn’t seem as overwhelming.  We’ve seen flowers.  We know spring is coming.  I was thinking about this in terms of the life of faith.  We come out of the darkness into the light of God’s love, and we get excited.  Good things begin to happen, and we feel good.  Then, for some reason or other, we find ourselves back in the darkness.  We question why we ever hoped, and if the light is real.  The light is real, and the hope is still there.  This cold snap won’t kill those crocuses in my yard, and momentary darkness doesn’t need to kill the light in our hearts.  As surely as we know that spring is coming, we know that God will win.  We need not fear the darkness.

A New Perspective

Most mornings I get to the church around 7:00 and go to the sanctuary to walk and listen to podcasts.  I listen to sermons, lectures on ministry and preaching, interviews, and other things designed to feed me spiritually and/or intellectually before I begin my day.  I’ve been doing this for several months, and every morning I have come in and started walking around the space counterclockwise. 

This morning as I was walking and listening I realized I always walk in the same direction.  I took a break to go down and unlock for the Transitions program, and when I came back up, I started walking clockwise.  It felt wrong.  It was awkward.  I had to rethink my path, as the path that seemed to flow easily from the other direction seemed awkward now.  I didn’t like it.  After a couple of circuits, I had relaxed enough to glance out the window as I walked by.  I was amazed.  I was seeing things I had never noticed before.  I paused to look more closely.  I had never really looked out that window before.  I paused again at the next window, again, a whole new perspective.  The discomfort and awkwardness of changing directions was forgotten as I considered what I was seeing out those windows. 

The scene was still the same.  Nothing outside those windows had changed.  I had changed.  I had taken the risk and endured the discomfort of walking in a different direction, of changing up my safe, comfortable routine.  I had been rewarded by being able to see what is behind our building in a whole new way.  I like that.  What other routines can I change to be rewarded with a fresh perspective? 

I’m going to look for other places where a change in routine can bring a fresh perspective.  I realize it will be uncomfortable, but I suspect that I will find the rewards are worth the momentary discomfort.  How can you gain a new perspective?  What discomfort is involved in gaining it?

I Can

I have been reading the news and opinion pieces being written about the Arizona shootings with interest.  I think what has intrigued me most has been the attempts by various constituencies to claim victim status and cast blame on others in the shooting and its aftermath.  I think we all can agree that Rep. Giffords and the others wounded or killed and their families and friends are all victims.  But are there other victims?  It seems like there has been a race to claim victim status. 

I think that rather than rushing to claim victim status, it would be much more productive to stop and ask, “What can I learn from this?  Are there things that I can do to bring healing to our country and lessen the likelihood of something like this happening in the future?”  There is only one person in the world I can change, and that is me.  None of us have the power to force change on others, and trying to make others change can be counter productive. 

So what can I do? 

• I can start by listening, especially to those who hold differing opinions from me.   Too often I label people and then dismiss their words or worse, demonize them as the enemy. 
• I can look for things we hold in common.  If I listen hard, I may hear that we all love this country, and that we all want what is best for it.  We may disagree on what is best, but most of us have no desire to destroy our country.
• I can name the fear that many of us feel– we may fear different outcomes, but many of the harsh words being spoken grow out of fear. 
• I can show respect for those with whom I disagree.  This is easier if I remember that like me, they love our country, and like me, they fear for our future.  Our fears may be different, but most of us have some fear for the future.
• I can be careful in what I say.  When I do speak, I can begin by honoring those with whom I disagree and highlighting our areas of agreement. 
• I can pray for our country and for its citizens– especially those with whom I disagree– not that God would change their mind, but that God would bless them.  If those with whom I disagree experience God’s peace, which is more powerful than fear, it will be easier for us to have a dialogue and find common ground. 

These are the things I can do.  This is how I can change.  I hope that others will want to do likewise.  May God bless us all with the ability to listen to and respect one another.

The Cost of Anxiety

“Friedman noted that differences, by themselves, do not create differing.  Our clashes are the result of rising anxiety.  Polarization is emotionally maintained.”  Peter Steinke in  A Door Set Open  Grounding Change in Mission and Hope. 

This quote is from the book I’m currently reading.  As I read it, my thoughts jumped from the church to our society as a whole.  For many, feeding the anxiety to maintain the polarization is highly attractive.  Painting those with different perspectives as evil means we can dismiss them and their perspective and stay secure in our own view.  It means we can avoid being stretched and growing.  It seems more comfortable, but the anxiety and fear take a toll on us as individuals, not to mention the toll the polarization takes on our country. 

When we paint those with opposing views as evil, we lose the opportunity to learn from them.  We lose the opportunity to learn from their knowledge.  We miss the opportunity to view a situation or problem from a different angle, a different perspective.  I remember a professor in seminary talking about how different schools of psychology allow us to view a situation in a room we can’t enter from different windows.  From one window, we might not be able to see what’s in that corner, and what’s in that corner may be important.  Moving around to view the room from different windows provides us with more information and gives us more tools we can use to address the issues in the room. 

What do the issues before us look like through the window of a small business owner?  How does a single mother struggling in a low paying job see it?  What is the view through the window of an elderly individual struggling to make ends meet on social security?  What is the perspective of a wealthy entrepreneur?  I only see it through my window, and perhaps the window of those who are close to me.  When I step outside my comfort zone to view things through another window, it can be uncomfortable, but it also enables me to better understand another’s point of view.  If I understand it, I can view them with empathy rather than fear.  I can work with the individual to find common ground. 

When fear and anxiety rule, we grab hold of the sill of our comfortable window for dear life, refusing to be drawn away to explore a different view.  While our perspective is important, when we hold onto that sill, we miss the opportunity to see things from a different window, and we block others from seeing things from our window. 

So what is the antidote to our anxiety?  As Christians, we need to remember the source of our security.  It doesn’t come from our window, or our government, or the size of our bank account.  It comes from God.  No matter who is president, or what party is in control of the Congress, our security comes from God.  That doesn’t mean the government won’t make bad decisions, it means that we need to keep those bad decisions in perspective.  God wins.  Always.  Faith overcomes anxiety.  Faith enables us to let go of that comfortable window sill.  As those who claim the name of Christ, let’s leave the anxiety behind to explore all the windows together.  Let’s learn from one another.  Let’s live out of faith rather than fear.

Reclaiming Advent

Today I read an article that contained the following: 

“The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued a strongly worded letter to merchants such as Target, Macy’s, Wal-Mart and JC Penney, among others, saying retailers should take precautions to prevent workers from getting injured on the day after Thanksgiving, one of the busiest shopping days of the year and the traditional start of the holiday shopping season.”

The article went on to recall the death of a Wal-Mart employee 2 years ago who was trampled to death by shoppers trying to get to the bargains on Black Friday.  I find myself pondering how our celebration of Christ’s birth could possibly create the kind of frenzy that results in someone being trampled to death by shoppers in search of bargains.  Not only does our Christmas shopping endanger lives, but it will also be carefully measured by economists, and the stock market will rise and fall based on how much we spend. 

Advent, the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, is a time set aside not for shopping, but for remembering and preparing for Christ’s promised return.  Most of the year we Presbyterians don’t think about the second coming, and when Advent comes around we’d rather focus on shopping and the baby born in a stable than Christ’s promised return.  This Advent let’s shift our focus.  Let’s set aside the ads and the shopping and spend time examining our lives and our readiness to welcome Christ.  Let’s live in anticipation, not of presents, but of Christ.  Let’s see if we can reclaim Advent.

Exile

I subscribe to weekly newsletter from the Alban Institute.  This morning’s, entitled, “There Once Was a World,” is an excerpt from a book by Peter Steinke, A Door Set Open:  Grounding Change in Mission and Hope.  An excerpt from the article:  “We are living in a new context where old certainties are disappearing, old institutions are less dependable, old assumptions are questionable, and old neighborhoods are less cohesive. Logically, if not spiritually, we may even have to allow for the possibility that these dislocations could be part of God’s new creation. It may be God working through the unknown that contributes to the destabilization of the world. God is no stranger to Eden’s deportation, Babel’s scattering, the exodus, the exile, and crucifixion. God can be surprising, mysterious, taking history into unexpected turns.”

This morning I find myself considering how God might be using the change and dislocation that is taking place around us.  One of my favorite questions is, “What is God teaching you right now?”  I find myself pondering what it is God is teaching us right now, and I find there is much for us to learn:

1. We are being given the opportunity to learn how to share our faith.  For years, we took it for granted   neighbors knew the story of Jesus.  We can no longer make that assumption.  The mission field is no longer across the ocean, it is right outside our doors.  One of the more challenging aspects of mission with our neighbors is that many have a very negative view of the church, having run into Christians who emphasize judgment and hate over grace and love.  We need to be missionaries sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with our friends, neighbors, and coworkers.  We need to be able to articulate why it is Good News.
2. We are learning how to equip members for ministry.  Many churches find it difficult to pay for the staff to carry out all of the ministry they want done, so it now falls to the members to be more involved in ministry.  Members are learning how to preach, visit, lead, teach and do many things that they once counted on staff to do.
3. We are learning how to proclaim the Gospel in new ways.  The Good News doesn’t change, but in order to communicate it to new generations, we can no longer expect people to get what they need from a 20 minute sermon.  We are losing our ability to listen and learn solely through auditory messages.  We need other visuals and media to keep our attention and focus.  When I was ordained 25 years ago, I didn’t see a need for computers in the church.  My Dad had been a pioneer in the field of computers for industry, so I knew what they could do, I just didn’t see an application where they would be useful in ministry.  Now, I can’t imagine trying to do ministry without my computer.  I rely on the internet for resources and interaction.  I am discovering new ways to use it for communication.  I am now learning about the use of PowerPoint, and love being able to add another dimension to my preaching. 

I’m sure there are many more things we can learn in this changing world.  What are some things God is teaching you as you deal with the changes?

Hello world!

Four weeks ago today I began my ministry with Delta Presbyterian Church in Lansing, Michigan.  This blog will be a spot for me to share my thoughts and reflections.

Growing

I’m currently reading Leaders Who Last by Dave Kraft. This morning I was reading about how important it is for leaders to continue to learn and grow. I will be honest, there have been times in my life when I knew that the challenges I was dealing with would result in personal growth, and my prayer was, “God, couldn’t I take a break from growing and rest for a while?”

Today, though, as I reflected on what I was reading, I realized that one of the reasons I have been so energized and having so much fun is because I am learning so much. Until this summer, I had never worked with PowerPoint. I’ve now used it in worship 4 times, and I’m learning more about the opportunities it gives me to enhance my preaching every week. I’m finding that energizing.

I also recognize that I would not feel this energy and excitement if I had not been willing to change. For 25 years I preached the majority of my sermons from behind the pulpit. For the most part, the only visual connected with the sermon was if I found a special picture (in black and white) to put on the bulletin cover. I’ve drastically changed the way I prepare my sermons.  The source and content have remained the same– I preach the Good News as I find it in Scripture, but the way I present it is very different.  Because I was willing to change and learn new things, I’m energized and excited about preaching in a new way. 

It’s taking more time to prepare my sermons, it’s more challenging, which I’d think would tire me out.  So I am delighted by the realization that rather than exhausting me, it’s energizing me.  So this has me wondering, how much joy do we miss because we are afraid to change, grow, try new things? 

Sometimes learning new things and changing is exhausting.  When we stick with it, though, we experience the reward that comes with learning and growth.  We recognize that we are still alive, still able to change and grow.  I hope I will always seek out the learning and growth that will give me this joy.