In the Potluck Line

Luke 17:5-10

When I was a parish pastor, I always waited to go last at congregation potluck dinners.  It seemed appropriate for the servant to be served last.  (And, it meant getting to clean out all the pans!)  Humility is a Christian virtue, and I was taught the importance of humility growing up.  Now, as bishop, when I visit a congregation, I am always invited to go first at potlucks.  I understand that is a sign of honor and respect, but it always makes me feel uncomfortable.  I hope the day never comes when I expect it or worse, think I deserve it!   But, the danger is always there.  Our egos as human beings can so easily become inflated!    

Jesus has a wonderful way of lifting up and encouraging those the world has crushed and bringing down those the world has puffed up.  Jesus challenges both false humility (those who are proud of their great humility) and false egos (those who project a big ego to protect a weak self-image).  In the end, we all need to be reminded that it is not what we do or don’t do, or how much or how little faith we have, or how much we accomplish or fail at in life that determines our worth in God’s eyes.

In this week’s Gospel, Jesus is both encouraging the apostles who are feeling inadequate to their task, and reminding them that the life of discipleship is not about being rewarded for their good works and efforts. In verses 1-4 of chapter 17, Jesus talks about stumbling blocks and forgiveness.   In response, the apostles plead with Jesus to increase their faith.  Forgiving someone who hurts you seven times a day seems impossible!  But, Jesus says, even a little faith is powerful stuff!  On the other hand, he teaches that a slave who expects special treatment for doing his or her duty is probably expecting too much. 

There is a balance here that is important for us to understand as we think about our own Christian lives.  As servants of Christ, we should never think less of ourselves than who we are.  It is not our faith that saves us, but Christ’s.  Because of Christ, we have been given what we need to go out into the world as Christ’s ambassadors of love, grace and forgiveness.  On the other hand, as servants of Christ, we cannot think more of ourselves than who we are either.  Our good works of love, grace and forgiveness will not save us, and certainly will not exempt us from the struggles, trials and challenges of human life.  Our faith does not put us above anyone, but calls us to accompany one another as brothers and sisters on the way.

Now that I think about it, maybe it’s best to be in the middle of the line at the potluck.  Or better yet, to stop worrying about it all together, and just do what we can to make sure all God’s children have a place at the table.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thank-you for reading!

The Bottom Line

Luke 16:1-13

During the summers through college and into seminary, I worked as a sales representative for Northrup King Garden Seed Co all across the Upper Midwest.  My job was to call on retail stores that sold our garden seeds, inventory the displays, collect for what had been sold, take the order for the next year and ship the displays and unsold product back to the company.    I learned a lot doing that job.  I learned how to organize my time efficiently, work with customers, deal with concerns and issues, track sales, work with shipping companies, and many other things.  The company’s mantra, drilled into us during our annual training, continues to reverberate through my life, “plan your work…  work your plan.”   The congregation where I served my first call, Mount Zion Lutheran Church in Wauwatosa, WI, was made up of many members who worked in the business community as managers, CFOs, CEOs and business owners.   I learned a lot from them about management, HR, budgeting, finance, planning and leadership.  To this day, I continue to value insights from the business community and regularly read books from that world.

But, the church is not, NOT, a business.  While I believe we can learn a lot from the business world (and from other “worlds” outside the church) the minute we start to run the church with a “bottom line” mentality, we get into serious trouble.   The minute we start thinking that the measure of mission and ministry is the number of people we can get in the pews, the size of our offerings, or the growth of our institutions, we become slaves to the wrong master.   Focusing on the bottom line – however we measure it -- drives us toward scarcity thinking, survival strategizing and viewing people as means to an end rather than as beloved children of God.  In a consumer focused and consumer driven culture, it is easy, very easy, to get caught up in this kind of thinking without even noticing it.

While I don’t pretend to understand the subtleties of the economics at play in this week’s text,  I think I get Jesus’ point.  This is a cautionary tale.   While it suggests that we can learn something from the way the “children of this age” manage “dishonest wealth” it warns that we need to be careful not to be co-opted by it.  

The bottom line of Christ’s Church is not profit (members, dollars, programs, buildings, etc.), but service.  The bottom line of discipleship is not what we gather, but what we give away.  Remember, Jesus said that to find our lives we need to loose them!   This measure of ministry and mission leads to celebrating God’s abundance,  strategizing generosity, and walking alongside God’s beloved children wherever we find them:  both inside and outside the church walls.   This measure of ministry and mission leads not to shrewd plans, and clever schemes to attract people to the church, but to acts of love which embrace all people and all things as amazing and wonderful blessings from our gracious Creator.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thanks for reading! 

Welcoming Sinners

Luke 15:1-10

Jesus had a way of hanging out with broken people.  He took a lot of heat for it.  In this week’s text, the Pharisees and the scribes grumble, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them!”  Jesus did spend a lot of his time with people who were considered sinful or “unclean” by the religious establishment.  Caring for broken, sick, hurting and outcast people was at the very center of Jesus’ ministry.  (In those days, sickness was often attributed to sinfulness.)  Another time when Jesus was criticized for welcoming sinners he responds by saying  “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”  (Mark 2:17)  

Following the way of Christ, the Church is called to welcome sinners and eat with them too.  Churches are meant to be hospitals for sinners, not clubs for saints.  Faith communities are made up of sinners, even if we have a bad habit of acting like that’s not so.   No matter what it may seem to the casual observer, the people who gather around the altar for Holy Communion are a motley bunch of the broken, not shining examples of the deserving. 

But, what does it mean to “welcome sinners”?   I don’t think it means judging them.  Scolding people and haranguing them for their shortcomings and brokenness is not at all helpful.  But, I also don’t think that welcoming sinners means adopting an “I’m OK, you’re OK” approach that leaves people in their brokenness.   That wasn’t Jesus’ way.  Instead, Jesus welcomed sinners and then transformed them.   In love and compassion, Jesus could push people and speak the truth to them about their hard-heartedness.   He healed the sick and freed people who were trapped in their own brokenness.  Jesus embraced the shunned and rejected, affirming them as beloved children of God.

The Church is meant to be in the transformation business too.  As sinners welcomed by Christ, the Holy Spirit is always at work transforming us into exactly who God created us to be.  The Holy Spirit is about the business of burning off the dross so that we might be made whole, freed from our own brokenness, and embraced as beloved children of  God. 

But, too often, we confuse conformity with transformation.  In subtle and not-so-subtle ways, when someone new comes into our communities, we expect them to become like us.  (As if, somehow, we represent the standard of Christian righteousness!  Ridiculous!)  Then, we act surprised when they do not come back.   Instead, what might happen if we welcomed newcomers as gifts from God whose perspectives and ideas and experiences will renew us and help transform us into the people and communities God intends us to be.   What if we welcomed newcomers as people who need Christ’s transforming power just like we do we do?  And then, what if, we sat down and ate with them…  as sinners together?

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thanks for reading!

The Value of Discipleship

Pentecost 16

Luke 14:25-33

Who are you?   When we meet someone for the first time, we generally start by exchanging our names, maybe what we do for a living or if we are retired, where we live, where we are from, something about our families.  Basic stuff.   But, who are you, really?   Thomas Merton, in his book New Seeds of Contemplation (New Directions, 1961) talks about the difference between our “false self” and our “true self.”   Our “false self” is made up of all those external things we think define us and give us our identity.  Those things that we believe make us who we are.  But, those things can be stripped away from us in a heartbeat by the trials, tribulations, tragedies and struggles of life in the world.  Just read the book of Job!  Our “true self,” on the other hand, is our life in God. 

Frequently, Jesus asks those who follow him to give up things that seem pretty significant to who and what we are.  Here, in this text, he asks the crowds to “hate” their families, give up all their possessions and even life itself.   To those of us with many possessions, and who place a high value on our families this can seem like an unreasonable expectation. This does not sound like good news at all.  The cost of discipleship seems way too high.

Instead of trusting in possessions and family to give our lives meaning, value, purpose and hope, Jesus tells the crowds that they need to “carry the cross.”  This echoes similar advice he gives to his disciples in other contexts.   Again, this probably doesn’t sound like good news either!   The cross was a horrific instrument of torture and death.  Crucifixion was hardly something anyone would aspire to experience.  If cross-carrying is required, the cost of discipleship seems way too high.

 So, if the cost is so high, what is the value of discipleship?   What is the value of this way of life that Jesus invites us to follow?  I think we discover the value of discipleship in the very cross he invites us to carry.   In the cross of Christ, we find evidence of God’s unfailing and unflinching love for us in the face of the violence, anger, hatred and injustice we perpetrate against one another.  In the cross we discover God’s grace, mercy, forgiveness and compassion for us and for all people.   We see that our relationship with God transcends and outlasts every human relationship we may enjoy.  That’s powerful stuff.   It reveals who we truly are. 

But, even more, in the cross, all the violence, hatred, anger and injustice in the world is unmasked as an  empty path.  In Christ’s self-giving, we find different path, a path that leads to life; to real life.  A path marked by justice, reconciliation and peace.   A way of life formed by a love which moves us to embrace all people; especially those who are being crushed daily by the world.  In the light of the cross, we discover that all our possessions, our families and our very lives are not our own (and never have been).  They are gifts.  Gifts to be used for God’s work and God’s glory.

And that is very good news indeed.

Peace,

Bishop Mike