Is it Just Me?

      Every once in a while I come across a picture or image that makes me stop and wonder.  Here's one that made me stop and wonder what the architects of this church were thinking.  Do you see what I see?

    Is this church designed to look like a chicken or am I seeing things?  I suppose it was visible only from a certain angle and I suppose it looked great on paper, but you have to wonder if they don't just refer to themselves as "The Chicken Church."

What Would Martha Mullen Do?

I can't believe how behind the curve I am on this blog.  My apologies.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his 19-year-old brother Dzhokhar, are accused of planting two bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The April 15 explosions killed three people and wounded more than 250. They're also accused of killing an MIT police officer on April 18 and of engaging in a gunbattle with police the next day. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died from injuries he sustained during that firefight. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured later that day. He's been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction.

As this newspaper account puts it so succinctly, we know many of the details about the Boston bombings.  The newspapers have also reported how difficult it has been to find a funeral home and cemetery willing to receive Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body and inter it. There were those who hoped that body would be shipped back to Russia, those who hoped that it would be left to rot, and those who were afraid having the body of this widely hated man in their cemetery or community would create a backlash or acts of vandalism against them.

Enter Martha Mullen of Richmond, Virginia who was troubled by all the threats, bullying, and anger surrounding what to do with the bomber’s body.  Wes White, in Sunday’s Joys and Concerns, made me aware of this rather ordinary woman’s rather extraordinary act of moral faithfulness.

Mullen told NPR reporters: "I was listening to NPR and I heard the story ... that he was unable to be buried and that people are protesting him. And it made me think of Jesus' words: Love your enemies.”  Mullen then emailed the Greater Richmond Islamic Society and other related organizations and became instrumental in getting Tsarnaev’s body quietly buried in her state.

         Mullen is someone who knew that in helping facilitate the burial of this generally reviled and hated man she would come in for her fair share of ‘criticism.’  And from what I can gather, that is putting it mildly.  All Mullen did was take Jesus seriously when he calls us to love our enemies, to treat others as we would want ourselves or loved ones to be treated, and face persecution for standing up for Jesus and his teachings.

    Like Wes, I was touched by this woman’s simple obedience to the call of becoming like Jesus, and her willingness to live with the consequences that come from allowing God to work through your life.  I believe that Martha Mullen thought what she thought and did what she did for no other reason than that, but it is also a powerful witness to those of us who also follow Jesus.  I sit up and think, I want to be more like Martha Mullen, I want to be that kind of Christian, I want to belong to a church that has a Martha Mullen kind of spirit.  And the reason I want to emulate Mullen is because I believe she has done a bang up job of emulating my Lord and Master.

   There is an important added bonus of Mullen’s actions.  It tells the rest of the world that not all Christians are vindictive, angry, punitive people.  I was struck by one of the commentators who responded to the newspaper article online.  He wrote:  I hear all these awful comments about hanging the body from a tree and letting it rot, or defiling it in some way. We should not stoop to the level of the bombers. We are better than that. I am an atheist, yet I seem to have more Christian charity in me than all the so called Christians who are reacting this way. Let it go. Move on. Heal.  Martha Mullen is a wonderful of Christian charity who has gone a long way to offset the bitterness and bile of folks who derive so much glee from damning others (some of which claim to do so in Jesus’ name). 

     In a time of so much religious sectarian strife and violence it’s a powerful witness to forgiveness and a convincing testimony of acceptance to be able to lift up someone like our sister from Richmond.  As a matter of fact, in today’s world, being like Martha Mullen may be the key to evangelizing a war weary generation that is looking for a third way:  not diplomacy, not armed conflict, but something deeper and more lasting—something like a peace that passes our human understanding.

Protecting Those Who Protect Us

The following is a newsletter article that was published as a quest column in the Journal and Courier.

Muzzles, Defibrillators, and Body Armor

I sat and looked at the front page of the Journal and Courier, mesmerized by the image of the first responders rushing to assist and protect those who were hurt by the bomb blasts near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  It amazed me how quickly the police, EMT, and fire fighters were able to sort through the carnage and get the most injured medical care.  It’s been a while since September 11^th and it is easy to forget one of the important lessons we learned there:  we are surrounded by everyday heroes who put their own safety on the line in order to insure ours.

Then I heard a comment by a news anchor who said that the last mile of the Marathon was dedicated to the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary School.  And I remembered how so many police chiefs, police commissioners, and mayors came out after Aurora and Sandy Hook asking for reasonable restrictions on things like assault rifles, extended magazine clips, armor piercing ammunition, as well as other kinds of lethal military-style equipment.

If I’m not mistaken, it was only days after the Connecticut mass shooting that someone set a fire near his home and shot down the first responders who showed up to put that fire out.  Yes, he had an assault rifle with extended magazines, and yes, he killed/injured several of those whose job it was to save lives and the destruction of property.

         There is a simple verse from Deuteronomy 25 that says: “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.”  In other words, if the oxen are working to help you sort grain, they should be given the chance to eat some share of that grain.  The apostle Paul quotes this verse several times to the early church essentially underscoring this as a biblical principle:  Provide for those who help provide for you—give the servant what they need, especially when they are in the process of giving you what you need.

What I don’t hear a lot of in the debate over gun violence is the common sense plea by us citizens to protect those who already put themselves in harm’s way to protect us.  There is a lot of talk is about guarding my rights with very little conversation about stepping up to my responsibilities.  I think the faithful response is to ask: What would you and I be willing to give up; what privileges would we be willing to curtail; how willing would we be as a community to put our responsibilities on equal footing with our rights especially if doing so would help save the lives of those who regularly risk their lives for us?

If a shooter had to change magazine clips more frequently, and in so doing, provided a chance to get an injured officer to safety or to drag a wounded firefighter out of danger—wouldn’t that alone be worth restricting their availability?

What possible use would someone outside the military need for armor piercing bullets?  Since they are specifically designed to penetrate the protective body armor our police officers wear—why do allow them to be sold in the first place?

And by opening up more and more public places to conceal and carry licenses aren’t we just adding more confusion and danger to situations where sheriff’s deputies, school security guards, or police try to quickly discern the good guys from the bad guys?

Maybe I’m just a naïve head-in-the-clouds pastor, but there isn’t a lot I wouldn’t consider giving up if it meant that those who are charged to protect my family and my church family would be more likely to return—unharmed—to their own families at the end of the day.  I guess I’m also naïve enough to suggest that followers of Jesus take whatever position they have on this important issue and weigh it against the witness of scripture, as well as lay it humbly before God in prayer.

         And as long as we are on our knees it wouldn’t hurt to pray for the safety of all those who have committed themselves to keep us safe in what has increasingly become a difficult and dangerous world.

It's Either Laugh or Cry

I was skimming the back of The Christian Century, a magazine read by a lot of pastors, and saw an advertisement from a church that was looking for a new Senior Pastor.  I always read the “Positions Open Section” since I failed to respond to an ad that wanted to pay its next pastor a lot of money to do ¾ time work in a church that had a view of the Green Mountains of Vermont.  Don’t get me wrong, I love St. Andrew, but we’re talking the Green Mountains of Vermont! 

         As I am reading the ad I’m being prideful, going through their list of desired attributes of a new Senior Pastor, thinking to myself:  got this, got that, do ok with this other, and so on.  And then it came to the point where the church said they were looking for a “dynamic, upcoming pastor.”  I couldn’t help but chuckle when I realized I am no longer an up-and-coming pastor.  I’ve done up and come.  I am about as good as I’m ever going to get.  I suppose I am  in that sweet spot where sufficient energy is balanced by wisdom borne of experience.  I was just a little melancholy because the pastor search committee of this church was really saying that they were looking for someone younger than me.

         I’ll never forget listening to a pastor describe himself as middle-aged only to be interrupted by his wife who whispered something in his ear.  And he mournfully shook his head, admitting that his recent 57^th birthday meant that he was middle aged only if he managed to live to the very ripe old age of 114. 

You’ve got to laugh, I guess, or you’re going to cry.  Life is full of those humbling moments.  Sometimes we turn around and realize that we aren’t as young as we used to be.  Sometimes we get told through the promotion of a colleague that we aren’t the golden girl or golden boy around the office any longer.  And other times we loudly and confidently proclaim that the newest Die Hard movie is the fifth in the franchise only to have someone pull out their smart phone and make us look foolish by proving that it’s only number four.  Sometimes circumstances say No to us when we were clearly expecting an enthusiastic Yes instead.  And we’re left with a choice between loud lamentations or laughter.

Humility is an important virtue if you want to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.  Being humble doesn’t mean thinking less of yourself than who you are.  Humility doesn’t require running around comparing yourself in unflattering ways to the people near you.  Humility means basing your self-image on how God sees you—it means seeing yourself truthfully and honestly on the one hand, but also understanding that you are loved and valued because you are first and foremost a child of Almighty God.  True humility comes when we are secure in our self-identity.  I might look like a genius in one moment, but I know myself well enough to enjoy the accolades of that moment, because in a few more moments I’m going to look like a complete idiot.  Humility is knowing that I am both and neither.  I am a work in progress:  a pilgrim on a life-long journey of learning and growing, falling and failing, and moving forward in my desire to become like Jesus.

We were cleaning out junk from the basement six or seven years ago and we came upon a series of articles I wrote for my High School paper.  I had a weekly humor column among other things.  The boys sat down and read through a couple of them and then turned to me and said, “You know Dad, you could have been somebody.”  Wow!  Talk about a back handed compliment.  My response was to laugh long and hard.  They was saying, “If you’d stayed writing—being a columnist—you might be famous and successful as a journalist.”  He wasn’t really saying “Being a pastor in the church of Jesus Christ for the last 20 plus years is a real waste of talent.”  But I could have taken it that way.  Lucky for me I have a slightly higher opinion of full-time ministry.  And since God called me into pastoral ministry—who or what I might have if I had taken a different path is moot anyway.

Lent is a season in the Christian calendar when we take a long, humbling journey with our Lord and Master.  He who was equal with God, emptied himself and became one of us—more than that, as one of us, he became a servant.  The King of Kings was crowned with thorns; the Prince of Peace was violently tortured and killed.  Jesus would not have been able to face any of that if he didn’t have great confidence in his mission and purpose, knowing who he was called to be and who he was in the eyes of God.

My prayer for you is that you take a moment or two when those humbling moments come along and choose laughter over tears.  We are who we are by the grace of God, and the God who created us, who has gone to such great lengths to redeem us, is the God who will provide for us everything we need to be the women and men he wants and needs us to be.  And humility is as good a place to start that journey as any.

         Tim

Making My Church An Apple Store?

      Came across an interesting blog by a pastor who made a handful of observations about retail Apple Stores.  Evidently they are wildly successful and make all kinds of money for the company.  He thinks it makes sense to consider how they do that--and apply some of those principles to the church.  To read his article check out:  

http://ywmovement.org/make-your-church-an-apple-store/

    There is some envy for sure on the part of us Christians.  We would like our churches to be as 'cool' for the unchurched or the general public as Apple and products are to the computer/iphone/ipod buyers out there.  And I wonder if our desire to be cool has more to do with us than it does with Jesus.  I'm not sure Jesus was ever that worried about whether he was cool or not.  He worried that folks were or were not getting the message.  And I suppose if you could make the argument that being 10% cooler would help people out there get our message, well then maybe I'd give it more consideration.

     In any case, check out the link above.  He's got some interesting things to say.  Some of them might be very helpful for those of us INSIDE the church to remember about those who are still OUTSIDE the church.

Picking A Side

       I just want to follow up on some of the discussions we’ve been having--as followers of Jesus who are trying figure out how to think, act, and pray about the events and issues of our day.  I have been chewing on a famous quote attributed to my favorite President (and soon to be Oscar winner) Abraham Lincoln.  In 1867, Francis Carpenter, who had spent six months in the Lincoln White House, wrote the following:

No nobler reply ever fell from the lips of a ruler, than that uttered by President Lincoln in response to the clergyman who ventured to say, in his presence, that he hoped "the Lord was on our side."

"I am not at all concerned about that," replied Mr. Lincoln, "for I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."

         I love Lincoln’s insight.  It helps me remember that my job isn’t to hitch Jesus to my preference, my cause, my perspective, but rather my job is to figure out the preference of Jesus, to best understand his perspective, and ally myself to the Kingdom, which was the cause Jesus died pursuing.

Lord knows it’s a good time to be reminded of Lincoln’s insight.  The Spielberg film on is a powerful testimony of how even the messiest “sausage making” of government can still produce something noble and true.  We’re having simultaneous national conversations about a number of important issues.  We are wrestling with what should and should not be done to curb gun violence—especially in the face of horrific mass shootings.

We’re debating how best to balance bulging deficits with the chronic joblessness brought about by the Great Recession.

It is beginning to look like we are finally debating a comprehensive fix to our broken immigration system.

And we are starting to discuss the limitations of military intervention as well as how far diplomatic pressure can go in bringing peace to some seriously chaotic corners of our world.

It just strikes me as an ideal time for us to reconsider whether Jesus is really as enamored with our political and theological stances as we previously thought.  Have we been asking him to be on our side or have we tried to figure out where His side is and cleave as closely to it as we can? 

In my own life, I’ve discovered that the territory staked out by Jesus is surprisingly inconsistent.  Jesus wanted to conserve the best of the past when it came to the Law of Moses, but he also put enormous hope in the power of God to create a new relationship with God’s people.  Jesus had words of judgment for the sin of some, and nothing but comfort and forgiveness for the sin of others.  At times Jesus took a radical political position, and then turned around the next moment and confessed that his true Kingdom is not of this world. In moments of prayer, I’ve known Jesus to touch me with profound peace and then kick me firmly in the rear end ten minutes later—during the same prayer.

         No one said a life of discipleship would be easy.  In fact, if I remember right Jesus warned us that it would be fraught with difficulties.  There are faithful, loving women and men of God who can disagree quite vociferously with me on any number of issues, but who are nevertheless beloved sisters and brothers in Christ.  I have to trust that they have done everything they can to discern “God’s side” and have put themselves on it.  In fact, if we take the time to listen and respect one another we may discover that we have immeasurably more in common than we first thought.  We may even both be on God’s side—he or she on the left and me on the right or vice versa.  If nothing else, the love we share from God and the desire we have to serve Jesus far outweigh anything that threatens to come between us.

         If God is for us—on our side--than who or what can be against us?  If we both place ourselves at His side—than what can possibly come between us?

Jesus Gifts At Christmas Time

I have this beautiful poem hanging on my office wall.  It was an anonymous gift that means a great deal to me.  It describes Jesus-like gifts that we can give this season.
I know things are going to be crazy for me for the next week, so I'll be reading this more often.  If I don't get another post up before the anniversary of our Savior's birth, then God's blessings to you.  May you give and receive some of what is offered here.

This Christmas . . .

  Mend a quarrel,

  Seek out a forgotten friend,

  Write a love letter,

  Share some treasure,

  Give a soft answer,

  Encourage youth,

  Keep a promise,

  Find the time,

  Forgive an enemy,

  Listen,

  Apologize if you’re wrong,

  Think first of someone else,

  Be kind and gentle,

  Laugh a little,

  Laugh a little more,

  Express your gratitude,

  Gladden the heart of a child,

  Take pleasure in beauty and wonder,

   Speak your love,

       Speak it again,

          Speak it still once again.