On their loss

I have slept.

And am now awoken to the same world that I fell asleep in, and it makes me sad. A young man has lost his life. Was it criminal? I don't know. Was it a crime? Yes, as it always is when anyone's life is taken. There are voices that scream, "Justice!' while others are screaming, 'Injustice!' while still others are screaming, 'Just another day in paradise!' And it makes me wonder why anyone would risk life and jail to come into our world. And it makes me wonder why so many want so many others out of our world.

Michael Brown is gone. Trayvon Martin is gone. Thousands upon thousands of our children are gone. Black. White. Gay. Straight. Nothing will change that, not convictions, not indictments, not sentences, not electric chairs. But that doesn't need to be the last word. And it hardly ever is, instead the next word is the previous word and the word before that...VIOLENCE.

Another young man of color has lost his life and that is tragic. Another child of our world is gone and that is tragic enough. It was by the hand of law enforcement and that is tragic. But however the violence claimed another life is tragic enough. There has to be a point where all those of sound mind and sound body start screaming, 'ENOUGH!' doesn't there? Enough violence. Enough hatred. Enough mistrust. Enough pain. Enough!

It's not now, but it could've been. Maybe it will be the next life lost, or the next, or the next, or...

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." Ghandi

"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Jesus

There are too many voices that are silent today. Voices that have spoken their last and it is up to those of us who remain to raise our voices for them. I pray for the family of Michael Brown and I pray for the families of all those who have lost their sons and their daughters, their brothers and their sisters, their husbands and their wives to violence.

On their loss I swear that I will not add to the lost voices.

On their loss I swear that I will do my best to raise my child to love all and have malice toward none.

On their loss I swear that I will raise my voice in the places where theirs cannot be heard.

On their loss I swear that I will preach love from my mouth and my fingers.

On their loss I swear that I will love a little more each day in hopes that love may be maximized and hate may be minimized.

Peace and Love,
Pastor K

God Doesn't Care

As I was writing my sermon tonight I needed a quote I wrote down a long time ago in a songbook of mine. As occasionally happens from time to time I got caught up in a wave of nostalgia and started looking through my book, spanning from 2000-2005 a time where I was prolifically writing song lyrics. As I perused them I came to one I wrote in May of 2000 that I thought I would share with you.

God Doesn't Care

He takes the weak
and makes them strong
He takes the sad
and brings them joy
He gives sorrowful people a smile

God doesn't care
if you have a million bucks
he doesn't even care
if you don't have one

He takes the meek
and gives them a voice
He takes the blind
and lets them see
He gives hearing to the deaf

God doesn't care
if you're a supermodel
he doesn't care
if you're a garbage pail kid

He takes the filthy
and makes them clean
He takes the ugly
and gives them beauty
He gives fortunes to the poor

God doesn't care
if you're black, red, or blue
he doesn't care
if you've got no color at all

He loves those
who have no love
He gives to those
who have nothing
and to those who have no voice, we sing

Peace and Love,
Pastor K

Red Letters/Black Letters: Day 109: Love Part 2 - Service Love

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; 

as I have loved you, that you also love one another." John 13:34

We are supposed to love each other, this we know, but here Jesus takes it, if not another step at least a different one, here Jesus commands the disciples to love one another as Jesus has loved them. This is not an abstract statement, because just a few paragraphs earlier in John 13 Jesus loved the disciples in a very particular way, he washed their feet.

I don't know what Christian faith tradition you come from, but by and large I come from the Church of God (Anderson, IN) and in CHOG we [mostly] practice foot washing yearly. We do this partly to remember what Jesus did for his disciples, but also to humble ourselves, to remind ourselves that no one of us is more or less important than any other of us. All of that is great, and while I appreciate the foot washing services I have been a part of I don't think that is all Jesus is commanding his disciples to do.

If you pay attention to the titles of these posts you probably know where I am heading, but for those of you who don't and still didn't even though I just pointed it out [you know who you are] I believe that this particular type of love that Jesus is commanding of his disciples is a love that is shown through service. Jesus told his disciples multiple times that he did not come to be served but to serve, this is something that we in the 21st C. church, especially in America need to remember. Too often we come at the world with a sense of entitlement, and while we do that for many reasons one of the worst is when we do it because of our status as Christian. For some reason we believe that because we have chosen Jesus we are somehow better than those who have not. Or, we believe that because we have asked forgiveness for our sins those who still sin are worse than us.

The fact of the matter is that  whether you've been a Christian since the womb or been one for five minutes. or never been one you are no better and no worse than anyone else. And so, Jesus commands to serve one another in love. To wash the feet of those who come to us. To help those who need us. To speak for those without a voice. To see those that society overlooks. To hold those who are shunned.

+ Do you serve in love or out of obligation?

+ In what ways do you love well? In what ways do you need to improve?

Red Letters/Black Letters: Day 107: I wanna be in the light

"While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become children of light." John 12:36

In the beginning God said, "Let there be light," and there was light, and if that light was merely a shiny yellow ball in the sky we wouldn't have much to talk about. But, then John comes along and says, "In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness. and the darkness has not overcome it." John 1:4-5 Our light was never a yellow ball in the sky during the day, and it was never a bunch of white dots in the sky at night, our light was life and it had a name, Jesus. In a strange twist of devotional days in Day 108: Love, I spoke about what we should be getting from Jesus if we follow him as closely as a disciple should, love. The reason this is possible for us is that we are following the one who is life and light and love.

Jesus, the Son of God, walked this planet for 30 some odd years. He experienced the vastness of human experience, from the mountain top to the valley low and every stop in between. Why? So that we could know that he knows what this life is like. He knows the moments of pleasure we get from the smile of a child or the warmth of a friend's embrace. He also knows the hell of betrayal and death. He walked in our shoes and bled in our shoes, so that we could understand, if only minutely, how far God was willing to go to show us love.

We, the children of God, have walked this blue ball for thousands of years. We experience the mountain top and valley low and every stop in between, which we can do one of two ways. We can live this life separated from God, believing that this existence, with its heavens and its hells is all that there is. We can also live this life connected to God, believing that this existence is merely the first stop on a journey that continues. Past the flesh and the blood. Past the science and the Book. Past the heavens and hells of this place into a place where only the former exist. All this second way requires is that we understand, of only minutely, how far God was willing to go to show us love.

We follow Jesus closely and we are infected by his love. We follow Jesus closely and we are infected by his light, which is the light of all men. Light does not shine for its own good, Jesus's didn't and ours shouldn't either. We must share out light and love so that others may know how far God was willing to go to show us all love.

+ Which path have you chosen to walk? Why?

Red Letters/Black Letters: Day 108: Love

"By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:35

Here in Indiana it has become the rallying cry of the Church of God to 'Make More and Better Disciples.' I sometimes wonder what that really means. Throughout the churches history it has meant different things to different people. Sometimes being a disciple has meant that you need to blindly follow the church leaders. Sometimes being a disciple has meant something akin to legalism, knowing the rules and enforcing them. Sometimes being a disciple has meant nothing, the only important thing being getting people to an altar to a baptismal and to a tithing envelope. [and really only that last step is really important]

In Jesus's day a disciple was said to have the dust of the rabbi's feet upon them. In other words they followed so close that they wouldn't miss a thing that the rabbi said or did. It is this proximity to the rabbi that we need to relearn as a people who claim Jesus. It is not about learning the rules. It is not about following leaders blindly. It is not about a prayer or water or money. It is about following Jesus as closely as possible. If we follow Jesus that closely we should pick up certain things that Jesus was spreading around. 

Jesus does us the favor of letting know exactly what we are supposed to pick up. Look at the top of this post and you'll get it. Love. Not rules. Not memorization of scripture. Not gatekeeping. Not membership drives. Not propaganda. Not blind faith, blind eyes, blind hearts. Love. The one thing that should set Jesus's disciples apart from all other disciples should be their love. How is that going for us? 

In order to make more and better disciples in our churches in Indiana and around the globe we must do one thing and one thing only, love. Teach it. Preach it. Share it. Live it. And the people who come to our churches will get it on them, like the dust from the rabbi's feet. They'll get it on them and it will spread like a wildfire or an infectious disease. And we will be a church of love, because of who we are following.

+ Do you consider yourself a disciple? Is it something you are striving to be?

+ How closely do you follow Jesus? What is rubbing off on you? What are you spreading around?

+ How do you define love? How do you show it and share it?

Red Letters/Black Letters: Day 106: The Gospel of Commentary

"And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself." John 12:32

Part of me would like to just go ahead and focus on the truth of this statement. Part of me would like to just talk about how when Jesus is lifted high people from every tribe and tongue and color and persuasion will recognize the savior of their souls. Unfortunately I find that I can not, because this time, unlike a lot of times, I decided to read a little more of the surrounding passage and found something a tad peculiar, something that in the words of the great Dr. Walter Frouse pricked me. What pricked me was the very next verse.

"This He said, signifying by what death He would die." John 12:33

I have mentioned that I have a less high view of the Gospel of John as opposed to the synoptic gospels, I think of it as a Bible approved super sermon, and this verse is one reason I feel that way. While the other gospels contain clarifying statements they are usually inputted for the original audience's benefit, i.e. explaining Jewish customs to non-Jewish hearers. Here, though, we find commentary, the author of the Gospel of John wants to explain what Jesus means by something he says. 

I feel the author feels the need comment this way because of his need to show a Jesus that is aware of every step along the path. Of course then the question becomes did Jesus know every step along the path? Did Jesus know he was going to die upon a cross? For the latter question, at the very least I think that Jesus would have a pretty good guess how the Roman Empire executed people, and being the great judge of human responses could have probably surmised that the Sanhedrin wouldn't want to kill him themselves. Add those two things together and it is quite possible that Jesus would have had a pretty good guess on how he would go out. 

The former question, the one about foreknowledge... I don't think that Jesus did know every step. Why? 1) Paul in Philippians 2:7 suggests that Jesus let go of some of the power he had before he became human. 2) If Jesus knows every step why does he go to the garden and pray for the cup to pass him by? Because if it was a done deal from the manger, Jesus is just playing to the crowd hundreds and thousands of years later. 3) In Matthew 24 Jesus talks about the fact that he does not know when he will return.

+ How do you view passages like this? Do they drive you crazy? Or do you think I'm crazy for fixating on them?

+ Do you believe that human Jesus was all knowing?

Red Letters/Black Letters: Day 105: Life from Death part 2

"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, 

it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain." John 12:24

Each and every day we are given a choice. It is a simple choice. It is a profound choice. Do we live for ourselves or do we live for God? Our choice determines whether we stay alive, alone or whether we die among a community. It is my belief that the first sin was deciding to commune with that which was not God. We were created for community with the Creator and yet we decided to chose the created instead. 

So for thousands upon thousands of years we who believe have been attempting to get that original community back. We worked hard, we prayed hard, we sacrificed hard, for nought. Because it wasn't within our power to reestablish it, it was within God's, and God did. Through a baby in a manger to a man on a cross and off it God did what we could not, reestablish the original community. What is left now is for us to allow it to happen. And so, each and every day we are given a choice.

A grain of wheat, or any other seed for that matter, must die in order for new life to begin, the same is true of us. The problem, and I'm sure you know it already, is that we don't really want to die to live. So, we argue about the choice, we rationalize why we don't have to choose, we bargain, we cajole, we fester, and we do it all alone. A man or woman who chooses to live for themselves is alone, even in the midst of a crowded room. A man or woman who chooses to live for God is never alone, even in the dungeon.

Each and every day we are given a choice. It is a simple choice. It is a profound choice. Do we live for ourselves or do we live for God?

+ What choice do you make? Why?

Red Letters/Black Letters: Day 104: Life from Death

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 

And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die." John 11:25-26

There are times that I read verses like this one quite literally and think that none of us must believe in Jesus, since we all die. Unless, of course, that the base meaning of the words Jesus used was not his actual intention. Isn't that bothersome? At the same time thought Jesus is speaking quite literally in the first half of this section, he is talking about raising Lazarus from the dead. So, in the same paragraph Jesus uses literal and metaphorical language.

I am reminded of a conversation I had not too long ago with someone who told me that the Bible was easy to understand. It took almost every fiber of my being not to laugh in their face. Instead I told them, that I disagree, that I have a Master's degree and still have trouble understanding the Bible. They somewhat politely told me what does a Master's degree have to do with anything. Nothing, I replied, except to point out that the Bible is not easy to understand, and if you think it is, you are mistaken.

Jesus speaks in metaphor and hyperbole and parable. The Bible is full of poetry and erotica and apocalyptic writing that most if not all people completely misunderstand all the time. It is so easy to misunderstand the Bible that there are 30,000 different denominations that all consider themselves Christian. The Bible has been used on both sides of most arguments for the last 1500 years, give or take. And there are some people who still think its easy to understand.

I didn't set out to write about that, I was going to speak about Life after Death, but maybe I did already. After all we who follow Jesus are alive, and before we were dead. Jesus raised us from the dead, and so we can read the Bible and argue about the Bible and try to understand the Bible and try to make it make sense of our lives. Reading these words is life after death.

+ How do you tackle passages like this that use mixed mediums of communication?

+ In what ways do you struggle with what you read in the Bible?

+ How has your understanding of your life been expanded by reading the Bible?

Red Letters/Black Letters: Day 103: Knowledge is Love

"I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know my Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep." John 10:14-15

Time and time again Jesus compares his relationship with his followers as being like his relationship with his Father. As connected as Jesus is to the Father is as connected as he is to us. As much as Jesus loves the Father is as much as he loves us. And here as much as Jesus knows and is known by the Father is as much as he knows and is known by us. That, my friends, is heady stuff if you sit back and think about it. In essence what Jesus is saying to us is that we who choose him here below are not followers, not friends, not family, but one and the same as Jesus, one and the same as God. Obviously this does not make us gods, but it makes us as connected to our creator as we can possibly be this side of breathing.

Now, let's once again think about what we talked about yesterday, a pastor/volunteer and the church he/she serves. Jesus is a good shepherd and lays down his life for his sheep, because he knows them as well as he knows himself. If we desire to be shepherds instead of hirelings we will lay our lives down for our sheep as well, in addition we should work to know them as well as we know ourselves. Their dreams. Their fears. Their successes. Their failures. The way they see the world. The way they interact with the world. We should be walking with them in every moment, from the mountaintop to the shadow of death. If we are not getting to know our sheep, laying down our lives will be irrelevant. 

Laying down our lives for the sheep will also be irrelevant if we are not sharing ourselves with the community. The good shepherd not only knows his sheep, but is known by them as well. This requires a deep honesty between a pastor/volunteer and the people they serve. Honesty in conversations, honesty in Bible Studies and Sunday School classes, honesty in small groups, and honesty from the pulpit. If we carry ourselves to be one way in our public settings, but are another way in reality, we are not known, we are fakes.

+ How do you feel/think about your connectedness with God?

+ If you are a pastor/volunteer how do you get to know the people you are serving? Do you? Do you also let them know you?

+ If you are not, how does the pastor/volunteer get to know you? Do they? Are you open to them? Are they open to you?

Red Letters/Black Letters: Day 102: Becoming a Good Shepherd

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for his sheep." John 10:11

When I read this passage I want to think of it in its own context, I want to focus on the fact that Jesus is saying it about himself, about his willingness to lay down his life for those he cares about. At the same time I can not forget the next two verses.

"But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep." John 10:12-13

I read the three verses as a whole and I begin to think about myself and others like me, who work [or volunteer] in the church. I think of myself and those like me and I begin to wonder, am I [are we] a shepherd or a hireling? Are the sheep entrusted to me, or are they mine. It may seem like splitting hairs, but it is an extremely important delineation. Because if I am [we are] hirelings, what stops us from running away when the wolf comes, i.e. when things get difficult? But if I am [we are] a shepherd, then we will stick in the hard times because we are willing to lay down our lives if necessary for our sheep.

I don't want to think about this, I really don't. I would rather just think of Jesus's sacrifice without having to weigh whether or not I am willing to make the same one. Yet, at the same time I am quite willing to talk about taking up ones cross and carrying it daily, as long as it is just carrying the cross, not actually hanging from it. But, and this is the rub, the only reason to carry a cross is to reach the destination where you are then placed on it. Am I willing to hang where my savior hung? Are you?

+ If you are a pastor or church volunteer do you believe it is necessary to lay down your life for your church? Have you had to do it already? If so, what was the outcome?

+ If you are not, do you believe your pastor would? Are they a shepherd? Or a hireling?

Red Letters/Black Letters: Day 101: The crux of the issue

"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." John 10:10

I sometimes wonder if many Christians have actually read the Bible, particularly the Gospels, particularly the red letter passages. I say this because there are so many factions within the faith that seem to boil Jesus's core message down to things that make no sense to me. 

Some boil it down to fire insurance. These people seem to think that the main purpose of Jesus's teachings is all about getting out of this life and into another life after you die that takes place somewhere other than a fire and brimstone, eternal punishment hell.

Some boil it down to a definitive list of rights and wrongs. These people seem to suggest that the main reason Jesus came was so that we, his followers, can decide exactly what Jesus feels about a give topic. These topics are usually THE topics of the current day, and they usually fade away given enough time. When the topic becomes less sexy, these people move on to the new "in" sin.

I could probably go on and on and on, as I said there are so many factions that boil the message down to things that make no sense to me.

For instance, if Jesus's main goal was to get us out of this life and into another more praise chorus filled one, why did he talk so much about this life? And if Jesus's main goal was to create a list of right and wrong why does he seem to harp on the way we judge being tied to the way we will be judged?

There are quite a few verses that, I believe, point to Jesus's real main goal, but this verse fits the bill nicely. Jesus says that he has come that they (we) may have life, but not just any life, an abundant life. Now, an abundant life does not mean that we live in abundance, i.e. Jesus is not saying that he came so we would have earthly treasures or wide acclaim. I believe what Jesus hoped to accomplish was to convince us to live lives filled we grace and hope and love, because a life filled with those things reaps more of the same.

Being shown grace comes from being graceful. Being trusted comes from having hope. Being loved comes from loving. 

+ Do you live abundantly?

+ Do you believe Jesus wants you to?

+ What do you think the main thrust of Jesus's message was?