Death is NOT the End

All Saints Day

Revelation 21:1-6a

Christians believes two things about life in this world.  First, that it can be a real struggle.  As Christians, we acknowledge that the world is a broken place.  Conflict is real.  Violence, pain, fear and terror are real.  Death is real. Relationships are often frayed and shattered.  People are hurt, and hurt others in a million ways every day. The thing is, the world has always been that way.  Second, Christians believe that death is not the end.  We believe that destruction, brokenness, conflict, pain and hurt never have the last word.  These two central truths about human life play themselves out in a powerful way in the cross and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.  Jesus was nailed to a cross by a world that could not tolerate his message of God’s love and grace for everyone (no exceptions); a sacrifice to the brokenness and violence of our world and our human propensity to demand blood when we feel wronged or slighted or hurt.  Jesus’ resurrection is a clear demonstration that God’s love and grace is more powerful than all the brokenness and violence the world can muster; more powerful even than death itself – even the horrors of a death on the cross.

But, the Good News that death is not the end is not just a panacea to help us tolerate the pain and suffering of the present tumultuous times.  Instead, the Good News that death is not the end frees us to live boldly and joyfully in the midst of an often difficult present.  Because we no longer have to worry about death, we can focus on nurturing life.   Because we know that the fullness of life, not the emptiness of death, lies in our future, we can join hands and work toward that future in the here and now.   Because we know that God, in Christ, has reconciled the world to God, we can join in that reconciling work.

The book of Revelation paints harrowing and horrible pictures of the great battle that is being waged between the forces of Good and Evil that seem to be swirling around us all the time.  People in every age since John of Patmos shared his vision have been able to see themselves and their times in his images.  That’s because the world has always been a broken and often fearful place to dwell.  But, the point of Revelation is not to terrify, but to give hope.  The punchline comes at the end – in the vision of the ultimate victory of God over all the world’s brokenness, evil, violence and death.  A victory won in Christ who died, defeated death and showed us the way to eternal life, and how to live in the here and now.    

The saints that the Church celebrates each year on the first of November are not people who were perfect, or more holy or in some way better than the rest of us.  No.  The saints of the Church are those people who understood and experienced the reality of a broken world and, with God’s help, managed to live in love and hope and joy anyway.  People who were very much like you and me:  imperfect and broken and, most of all, loved by God. 

Peace,

Bishop Mike

We've Always Done It That Way

Reformation Sunday

October 25, 2015

John 8:31-36

Last January, I had the privilege of visiting Wittenberg, Germany, “birthplace” of the Lutheran Reformation.   It was fascinating to see the City Church, where Martin Luther preached, and the Castle Church upon whose door it is said he posted the 95 Thesis which touched off the Reformation.  I was struck by the fact that you can walk from one to the other in less than ten minutes.  That got me thinking.  I can imagine what happened the first Sunday Dr. Luther announced at the City Church that, on the next Sunday, the congregation would begin worshipping in German.   In my mind’s eye, I can see a couple, probably toward the back, leaning over to one another and whispering, “Humph!  If that’s what he’s going to do…  then…  next week, we’re going to the Castle Church!  After all, if Latin was good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for us!”*

Of course, the above story is completely fanciful.  But, I think there is a lot of truth in it.  Embracing change, especially significant change, can be difficult, even for a church that celebrates the “Reformation” (i.e. “Change”) each year.  Anyone who knows me, or reads my musings regularly, knows that I believe that change in the church is both inevitable and absolutely necessary if we are to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ effectively in our contemporary world.   The question whether the church should change or not is, in my opinion, a nonsensical question.  Change happens.   The only real question for the church is this:  “do we passively accept the change that leads to decay and death or do we do what we can to foster the change that leads to growth and new life?”

Though I believe strongly that significant change and reformation are absolutely necessary in our churches today if we are to turn around the obvious decay and experience growth and new life, I believe just as strongly that there is a Truth at the center of our faith that does not change (something of a paradox, I know).  The Truth of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is the taproot of the Church that bears his name.  It MUST be at the heart of the church, or we stop being the Church.  The story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is the “truth that will make us free” to make the necessary changes that will release us to proclaim God’s Reign and serve our neighbors in new and life-giving ways.  Sure, the story has been interpreted and re-interpreted, applied and re-applied in many and different ways down through the centuries, and across the breadth of the church today, but the story itself forms our sacred center. Reconnecting the church to that sacred center in new ways was what Luther’s Reformation was all about.  Whatever change we embrace,  it is what we need to be about too.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

*As far as we know, Jesus actually spoke Aramaic as his first language. 

Where Are the Children?

Pentecost 19

Mark 10:13-16

“How can we attract children and families?”  It’s a question I hear frequently as I travel around the Arkansas-Oklahoma Synod.  Many of our congregations no longer have Sunday Schools.  The average age of those attending on Sunday morning has gotten older and older as the years have passed.  Those still worshipping think back longingly to a time when their own children were growing up, the Sunday School classrooms were bursting at the seams with young baby boomers, and the church was the center of family life in the community. 

How different, it seems, is the picture in this week’s lesson from Mark.  In this short text, the children want to come to Jesus.  The families are coming, bringing their children so that Jesus can touch them. Oh, how we long for that to be the case in our churches!  

We keep looking for the “magic bullet” that will draw the families back to our worship services.  Maybe if we just put together the right program.  What if we build a gym?  Some would suggest we just need to get a good band, like the megachurches down the street.  (Though that is usually immediately followed by someone saying how much they would hate losing the “traditional” service.)  There are all sorts of ideas for making the church more “family friendly”.   But, nothing we try seems to work, or it seems out of our reach practically or financially, or too far out of our comfort zone.

I think we are asking the wrong question.  The question isn’t, “How can we attract families?”  Instead, we should be asking,  “How do we reach out to families with the Gospel of Jesus Christ?”   The first question is about institutional survival, based on a desire to recreate the past, the other is a question about ministry, and grows from a desire to serve people in the present.  The issue isn’t figuring out how we overcome those things in the world that keep families from coming, but asking how we overcome those things in ourselves that prevent us from taking the Gospel out into the world where families live.

Maybe the Gospel text is more relevant than we initially thought.  Perhaps there are children, out there, in the world who really are yearning to be touched by Jesus, and we, like the disciples, are doing things – intentionally or unintentionally – that block them from coming. 

If we seriously want to minister to children and families, we need to stop looking for magic bullets.  Instead, we need to be looking for ways to go out TO the families of our communities, we need to walk with them, learn from them, and listen for what their needs, questions, concerns, challenges and struggles are.  What gives them joy and hope?  What are they yearning for?  Then, we need to help them discover the God who is already walking with them and the grace that is already theirs in Jesus Christ.  Even more, we need to ask them what kind of faith community they would find meaningful and life-giving – and then give them the space (physically and spiritually) they need to do it.  That community will probably look very different than the congregations we currently belong to and certainly different than the ones we remember…  and we need to be OK with that. 

Peace,

Bishop Mike