Failure?

PLEASE WATCH THIS SHORT VIDEO BEFORE READING

• Failure? Hardly a word anyone would associate with Michael Jordan. Yet, when he lists his failures, they are eclipsed by his extraordinary success. 
• Reggie Jackson, a.k.a. Mr. October, struck out 2,597 times - the all time leader in major league baseball strike outs. 
• Henry Ford failed in business five times before he succeeded with the Ford Motor Company. 
• Bill Gates, Harvard drop out, and Paul Allen started with Traf-O-Data which crashed and burned before Microsoft. 
• Einstein did not speak until he was four and could not read until he was seven, causing his parents and teachers to think he was mentally disabled, slow and anti-social. Eventually, he was expelled from school and denied admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School.

This list above could go on and on and fill pages with people who have failed in their lives. What separates these people from others is that they got up, dusted themselves off and got back into the fight. They didn't see the deck stacked against them. They didn't decide to become victims. They didn't wallow in self pity. They overcame the obstacles that were placed in their way and REFUSED to give up. They didn't blame others and took responsibility for their lives and decisions.

Now this will probably elicit some hate mail, but I've had it before. Currently there are demonstrations around the country claiming to be the 99%. Occupy Wall Street, Oakland, Denver, Washington, D.C. etc... Here is my take on this situation. These are made up of numerous groups of people, but I want to look at the group my generation created. My generation made the "Everyone Gets a Trophy Generation". As our kids played soccer and T-Ball - everyone got a trophy. In fact, I remember my daughter crying after a soccer game which had ended in a tie, because God forbid we destroy a child's self-esteem by having a team lose. I asked her why she was crying and she said, "We never win!'

Here is a news flash! Life is not fair! There will be rich people, there will be poor people and a bunch in the middle. In California they wanted to get rid of grades, just in case some kid might be damaged with an "F". These Trophy Kids were then thrust into the competitive world of earning a living. Face it, if you are doing "F" work you will not have a job. We live in a cut-throat and highly competitive economy. Having your boss tell you to gather up you things and get out is not a trophy.

Now that we live in a global community the American education system is ranked "average"; America is ranked 14th out of 34 countries in reading, 17th for science and below average 25% for math. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/07/us-falls-in-world-education-rankings_n_793185.html) 

We haven't done our kids a favor. The competition is now global. A large number of our kids are entering a marketplace that is looking for skill-sets in reading, science and math - not how well you can do on Halo on an X-Box.

I have failed in business, marriage and more things than I would care to admit, however,  I take responsibility for my failures. I am not a victim, I just get up each day and keep putting one foot in front of the other. I am not speaking from some positive thinking rah rah place. I know what failure feels like. I know what it is like to try and get to sleep, knowing that I really screwed up. I know we need to have time for our own private "pity-party", but I also know that one has to always get up and keep going. If you have read my previous blogs, you know I did not come from some Lilly white upper class suburb. I have fought for everything I have and will continue to do so as long as I have breath. Does that make me superior? No! The people listed at the top of this page are people who experienced failure and kept moving forward.

I believe my faith in God, the support of loved ones and belief in myself have allowed me to persevere. These are tough times for everyone and now is the worst time to blame the government, the banks or the people in the black helicopters. You have it within yourself to get up and start doing. If you have lost your job, take one that is "below" you. A generation in the 1930's faced tough times and made it through! We have all been spoiled thinking we are owed something that we have to earn. 

Our failures define us. How do you respond? Success is easy and it often blinds us to how tough this world is. Stand up and say - THIS FAR NO FURTHER! Decide what you will do to keep moving and do it. If you are a believer, remember these words:

"We rejoice in our sufferings,

knowing that suffering produces endurance,

and endurance produces character,

and character produces hope,

and hope does not put us to shame,

because God's love has  been poured into our hearts

through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us"

(Romans 5:3-5 -- ESV) 

Notice it doesn't start with hope, it starts with suffering. Hope in the New Testament is dynamic, active, directive and life sustaining. Today we can easily substitute "wish" for hope - I hope I get a new bike. Biblical hope is action based on faith and is brewed out of a life of suffering, endurance and character.

Pray that the God of peace can strengthen you to have hope.

Peace 

~Al

Outside In or Inside Out?

No, I am not talking about belly buttons.

I think there resides in each of us a desire to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. We want to make our mark on this world. We see this played out in various ways:

• Financial or monetary success
• Power
• A political agenda
• A family to carry on successfully
• To have all the possible toys and the newest gadgets
• To be a spiritual or upright person
• To have a meaningful relationship with God or the Creator
• To have knowledge and possess truth
• You fill in the blank, what is your highest desire ____________?

The only problem we have is that no matter how much of what we crave, we always want more. There is nothing that can fill that void in our soul. You may have power, money, a family and yet, there is something missing.

In Mark 10 there is an interesting story:

"And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him. 'Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'

And Jesus said to him, 

'Why do you call me good? no one is good except God alone. 

You know the commandments:

'Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal,

Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.'

And he said to him,

'Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.'

And Jesus looking at him, loved him,

'You lack one thing, go sell what you have and give it to the poor,

and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me.'

Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, 

for he had great possessions.

And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,

'How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.'" (Mark 10:17-25 - ESV)

In this story, a man who has possessions, wealth and power came to Jesus. He was obviously moved by the teachings and signs of Jesus and wanted to find out what he had to DO to inherit eternal life. I read from this that he is a typical "A" personality - DOING has to be the solution for everything.

This passage has been debated for centuries. The debate has focused on the camel and the needle. You may have heard them:

• There were gates around Jerusalem and if a camel was loaded with cargo it would be hard to get him through the gate.
• Oh, the Aramaic word here is similar to twine and so it would be hard to thread a needle with it.

Rather than try and justify some sort of reason that the wealthy are not actually forbidden into the kingdom of God, I would rather explore what Jesus is saying to this young man, and in turn, to us. It starts with the fact that the text says in vs. 21 "And Jesus looking at him, loved him". So, this is not a person Jesus detested, on the other hand, he loved him. This man had fallen into the trap that so many followers of God fall into. When asked about the commandments he had the right answer. However, his real god was what he possessed. Jesus cut to the quick and hit his real need -- You lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give it to the poor. Was Jesus saying that possessions are bad? Was he saying that this man did not love God? Hardly. What Jesus saw in this man was a person who felt that if he just did the "right" things he would somehow earn the love of God and thus the kingdom of God.

There are many professed religious people and that may be the problem. Religion focuses on the outside. If you do certain things, hold to certain dogmas, have the right political views and abstain from what is considered immoral - that somehow makes you a spiritual person. There are people who have never missed a Sunday church service who may be among the most evil and immoral people on the planet. Oh, if you spoke with them, they would come off as very pious and upright people. Just ask them, they can tell you they don't smoke, drink or chew or go with those who do. Their religion is from the Outside In. How do these people relate to the disenfranchised of our culture? How do they look upon addicts? How do they view gays and lesbians? Sadly, they cling to their spiritual accomplishments like a boy Scout clings to his merit badges. Do they see a person made in God's image? 


If you even take a cursory look at Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you see that Jesus spent most of his time with those marginalized by the religious leaders. In fact, the harshest words of Jesus are found in Matthew 25, where talking to the religious leaders says, "On the outside you look like a freshly painted tomb, inside you are nothing more than rotting flesh and bones."


The Christianity that was brought by Jesus was from the Inside Out. The heart is were it resides. And from the heart that has realized that God has shown mercy and grace, even in our wickedness is driven to show grace and mercy to those it encounters. As Paul puts it:

"For by grace you have been saved, through faith. 

And this not of your own doing, it is the gift of God,

not a result of works,

so that no one may boast.

For we are his workmanship,

created in Christ Jesus for good works,

which God prepared beforehand,

that we should walk in them."

(Ephesians 2:8-10 - ESV)

Christianity starts with gratitude. Gratitude that pervades and drives us to be more than we are. We are god's workmanship and created to reflect the image and love of His Son to those we come in contact with. We are not superior because we discovered some "secret" knowledge. We are not superior because we have a list of things we do or do not do. Our relationship with God is not made up of the things we do, but rather by the thing He has done. Our hearts have been touched and changed, we now see the world as God sees it. We see people struggling, people confused, people grieving, people who are wandering and because we have found someone who loves us just because we are His child - we start to love people for just who they are - children of God. All of this comes from the Inside Out. Ask God to help  have your heart broken by the things that break His heart. Commit yourself to let your heart be ruled by thanksgiving and reach out to people as God wants you to.


Peace
~Al

The Wastelands

PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS SONG ABOVE

From 1995-2011 I was in the wastelands. I, like many of you reading this, had been hurt and deeply disappointed by the church that I thought was a place to heal broken people. Yes, I screwed up - not just sort of but REALLY screwed up. I had lost a family and tried to go back to the church to only find judgment instead of grace and anger instead of reconciliation. Even though, intellectually, I knew that God loved me - I blamed Him. It seemed like at one of the darkest times in my life I was abandoned by God. I reverted to my upbringing as an atheist, and with an advanced degree in Theology, I enjoyed dismantling faith of those who professed faith in my presence. 

I was still a "good" person, whatever that means. But I was numb to God. My skeptical mind kept me from the self imposed guilt. Whenever the topic of God came up I would shoot holes through those thoughts and would  be amused at my brilliance. However, I could never get past this nagging emptiness that was in me. I would read about events in the world and look at life and job and ask myself, "Is this it?!". I remember a quote that seem to pervade my mind:

"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is worth or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy." ~ Albert Camus

The past eighteen months have been filled with death for me. The first death was what sparked my mind. It was like the phrase in the song above - WAKE ME UP! I attended a funeral for  someone who was not a follower of God. There was no "religion" at the funeral. People would get up and tell stories about good times, drunk times and the deceased in general. The one thing that was non existent was hope. There was laughter and there was pain but no hope. As I drove home, I was deeply depressed and the - "Is This It?" question kept echoing in my head. I started asking God for help as I drove home and started looking for a group of believers that I could hide among. 

Shortly after that I found out that my ex-wife, Angela, was diagnosed with ALS. Here again, death was visiting. I was a spectator and participant as Angela spent her last few months with us and sat at her bedside when she died on May 22, 2011. (You might read "How We Grieve" in a previous blog). On the heels of that death, my wife Josephine had to fly to Ireland because her Dad was suffering with cancer. She has been there since July and early Tuesday morning she called and said he passed away. While she has been there, three of her Mother's four brothers have passed away.

During this past eighteen months I heard the wake up call. I have come home to God, and those who knew me as an atheist have probably noticed a difference in my thought process. I found a congregation of people who come from all walks of life and all have their own stories. I think there are probably a great deal of people who in this present global economic meltdown are starting to ask themselves - Is This IT?! Many who feel abandoned by God. Many who have been hurt by the legalistic dogma of some church. Many who are just asleep and numb.

I can, with all confidence, say there is hope. There is love. There is faith. However you express your faith - intentionally show love to those around you. These are tough times and a lot of people are in pain and in the wastelands. I am now at peace. My prayer is that my two kids will eventually embrace faith. I was a horrible role-model for instilling that in them as they grew up. I did give them skeptical and critical minds, but some times I wonder if I gave them too much.

So my message to you this week is this:

Listen to that still small voice that is constantly being drowned out by a world in crisis. Focus on your families and loved ones. Show them and tell them you love them. Maybe, just maybe, take another look at God - hope is out there and I am confident you can find it. I pray that you find love and that you share it with those around you.

Peace

~Al

I Will Love You for You

I was going to write a very different blog this week. I am now sitting in a hotel room in Las Vegas and waiting for a conference to start. I opened my emails and checked the news, then I clicked on Facebook and saw a link shared by my mentor, Lynn Anderson. It is the song above by JJ Heller. I was struck by the simplicity of the message and it struck me, that is the message I am trying to share through my feeble attempts at blogging. That God loves me for me and He love you for you. However, it doesn't stop there. If people claim to be followers of God, we should love others as He has loved us. 

In the Lord's Prayer, without all of the 400 year old English, Jesus prayed - "And forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us."

Above anything else, God's people should be known for their love, acceptance and forgiveness. In a world that cries out for justice, God's people should be the ones who make sure that grace is in the equation to balance out justice. As I have said before; justice can easily become a platform for revenge and hatred.

What if the church was known as the people that loved and cared rather than the Crusades, Inquisition and religious division? I wonder how many people within earshot of our Sunday assemblies are asking for someone to love them for them? Yet we sing our songs, plan lunches, share the Lord's Table and listen to a message, yet without hearing the cries for help around us - often times in our own homes.

There was an event that comes to my mind as I sit in front of this laptop. It is deeply personal and I in no way am trying to make myself more than I am. I know I am a flawed human being who has hurt a great many people over my 59 years. This event was when I was on the giving end of forgiveness rather than my usual receiving.

My Dad was a brutal man. I have shared in a previous blog, Fallen, that he would  routinely abuse me physically and sexually in an alcohol induced fervor. Around 1980 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The doctors caught it early enough and did surgery. As he was recuperating, he stayed with my wife and me. The only complication was that he had not had a bowel movement in about four days. Well, as luck would have it, in the middle of the night my Youth Minister ears heard a screaming string of profanity that would cause a long shore-man to blush.

I jumped out of bed and intercepted my Dad in the hallway heading for the bathroom. I don't think I need to describe that scene any further. I grabbed him and started taking off his pajamas and turned on the shower. He was extremely angry and kept pushing me away, but I was much younger and stronger. (It is interesting how these roles inverse) I pulled him into the shower and started washing the filth from his body, under his severe protest. When he was dry and in clean pajamas he broke down. For the first time in my life - my Dad hugged me. He kept saying over and over, "After all I have done to you." I told him that I loved him and he was the only Dad I had, that just made him cry harder. 

That very night I learned what it felt like to forgive someone. All of the hatred, anger and craving for justice melted away. I saw an old man, who had been strong - now weak, crying in front of me. The only thing I felt was compassion and a desire to love this man, my Dad. After that event I actually began to understand my Dad. I remembered that my Grandfather had been harsh and I remembered times, even as a very old man, he would just haul off and hit me when I had not done something to his mark of perfection. Then I started thinking what it must have been like for my Dad growing up. I decided that the generational dysfunction would stop with me. I continually tell Sarah and Nathan ow much I love them and that I am proud of the way they have turned out.

Now back to the church. As a fellow follower of the teachings of Jesus, I am continually thankful of the grace he has lavished upon me. In the song I saw myself in the first verse of the boy who had a story no one would believe. The church is made up of flawed people all with stories. People who have needed and received forgiveness. However, we have a tendency to draw lines of demarcation to make ourselves superior to others around us. I have the dogma right! I have never missed a Sunday! I give 10% of my income! I don't smoke, drink or chew or go with those who do. We build up these arbitrary lists of accomplishments that we then use to measure others' progress. All the time not knowing the story of their full life. It becomes, "I will accept you for you IF you are the you I think you should be".

One thing I can say for certainty is that we have not been called to act like that. We have been called to express the nature of God. When Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 - look at the: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. That is the nature of God! That is not some class conscious list for judging others, it is a standard in which we need to judge ourselves. Some of the meanest people I have met, have been Christians. I am sure this makes our God weep.

So, this week, pray that God can help you be more like Him. Pray that you can love and forgive as he does. Maybe, just maybe, contact someone who you have been alienated from and reach out with love, acceptance and forgiveness. They may not be receptive, at first, but you need to give it a shot. How many shots has God given you to come home?

Peace

~Al

What Goes Around ...

Stay with me on this, it may be of encouragement to you. We are going to look at a concept that seems to span religions, and even secular life. Jesus said, "you will reap what you sow", many religions have the concept of Karma even in today's vernacular, we hear - What goes around comes around. Many televangelists and others in the Prosperity Gospel crowd use a verse in Luke's Gospel to encourage their followers to dig deep and give. They promise that when they give, they will get more in return, "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap. For the measure you use, it will be measured to you." (Luke 6:38 - NIV).

My problem is that when I hear a verse like that quoted, I always want to see what the actual paragraph is talking about. If you will indulge me, I would like to look at the context here and let this paragraph take on a much larger meaning.

"But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful as your Father is merciful.

Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For the measure you use, it will be measured to you." (Luke 6:35-38 - NIV)

Let's break this down. He says do not judge, and you will not be judged. So, what I hear in the phrase is that if you are a judgmental person, you will receive judgment. I don't know about you, but I often run into people who have made judgments about people -- You have all heard it. Whenever a person starts to tell me "dirt" on a person I usually say "I don't want to know". I am usually thinking at that point, I wonder what they say about me behind my back. What Jesus is saying here is that judgmental people usually are friends with other judgmental people. They share their fears, doubts and gossip about people they have written off or judged. Judgement dovetails very neatly into the next phrase Jesus says.

Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Judgment and condemnation are very close friends. I remember a few year ago when it turned out that  televangelist Jim Bakker was using raised funds to cover up a tryst with Jessica Hahn. His ministry was destroyed and he eventually went to prison. However, during this time another televangelist, Jimmy Swaggart, declared to his worldwide audience, "Jim Bakker is a cancer on the Body of Christ!" Not long after this, Jimmy Swaggart was found with a prostitute and crashed and burned.


In my experience, many people use judgment and condemnation to appear righteous while covering their own dirty laundry.


Now to the other side of the coin. He goes on, Forgive, and you will be forgiven. He had just spoken about loving your enemies. He also said that God is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. When I think of Mother Teresa, who dedicated herself to serve in the slums of Calcutta, I think of forgiveness. She is a person that people admire, with the exception of a few of the judgmental and condemning crowd. If you are struggling with a problem in your life, of the three mentioned so far - which one would you rather talk to - Judgment, Condemnation or Forgiveness?


Now we come to the phrase we began with, give, and it will be given to you. I am not convinced that this is limited to a monetary gift. I think it can be sharing what you have. Giving is not limited to the rich, we can all give comfort and yes our money. Jesus calls us to be instruments of his healing touch and his love. Often times, giving is hugging a person who is hurting, visiting a widow or being there with a friend who has seen their life shredded before them.


So here is what I believe this passage is saying:
If you fill your life with judgement, condemnation, forgiveness or giving - that is what you will get. If I may quote Jesus,

"A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For the measure you use, it will be measured to you." 

So, now comes the time of self reflection. Which group do you find yourself in? In the span of your life, which is only a hyphen between two dates on a tombstone, how are you perceived? What have you left in the wake of your life? Judgment? Condemnation? Forgiveness? Giving?

Get ready, because what goes around comes around. And according to Jesus - more than you can handle.

Peace ~Al

The Sermon

My son's girlfriend, Emilee, shared this video with me, I don't think she thought it would wind up here. As I saw the images and heard the words from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, I had tears in my eyes as I saw the dichotomy between how Jesus envisioned the Kingdom of God and where the world is today. For many reading this blog the images are foreign to your world - that are only seen on the News or some show. For Jesus this was a daily event. His followers were made up of people, who were marginalized by the culture of His day. The religious leaders often condemned him for being with "those kind of people".

For the most part, the majority of people reading this are in their home, apartment or even sitting in a coffee shop with WiFi. We may have the occasional crisis. Maybe you forgot to charge your cell phone, maybe you thought you had more gas in your tank and now you have to fill up or you have the flu. The scenes in the video above were not from a Third World country - they were all in Los Angeles. We are a blessed people. Even many of the poor among us, now at 46% according to the Congressional Budget Office, have cable TV, cell phones and some of the comforts we take for granted. I grew up in a place that could have been juxtaposed into that video and you wouldn't have noticed. 

Occasionally, the real world breaks through our carefully insulated lives. Something happens that causes us to question - "Why"? We find out a friend has cancer, an earthquake hits a highly populated area, or a tornado hits. Here in Norther Nevada we have been hit with two events that have shaken our community, I am sure you have seen them on the news. About a week or so ago, a disturbed man walked into an IHOP Restaurant and opened up with an AK-47 on the people having breakfast. A person from our congregation was shot and wounded, the persons on each side of her were killed. The question over and over being asked was, "Why". Then this past Friday afternoon, with thousands gathered to watch the Reno Air Races, a WWII era plane crashed into a portion of the crowd. For a fairly small and close knit community these were a one/two punch.


This morning at our church's Assembly, our minister Gary Cage, had some things to say about why God allows suffering and evil in this world. Gary is a thinker and no one expects a great deal of platitudes and cliches coming from him. He has a PhD in Philosophy and he also has worked as a professor for the past thirty or so years. He asked this question:

"Why is there evil and suffering in this world?"

His answer caught be off guard. He said evil and suffering exist because  God allows and sometimes causes it. We normally  hear the trite justifications made by many well meaning Christians that evil and suffering are the work of Satan. Really? Is Satan so strong and powerful that the Sovereign God of the Universe can't stop him? Is it the free will of humankind - that some are evil? Is God not powerful enough to stop a Hitler or a Stalin? No, if we are to believe that Yahweh is truly God Almighty - we are left with the conclusion that yes, He does allow and sometimes causes these things. I have trouble getting my head around that. Go ahead and noodle on that and we will get back to the words on that video.


The Bible NEVER promises we will be free of pain, suffering and evil. It does say that there will be a group of people who have decided to stand against the grain and dedicate their lives to easing pain, caring for the suffering and standing up to those who are evil. If there had been no Hitler a man named Dietrich Bonhoeffer would have never emerged. As a Christian he could not support the Nazi Regime. He was a prominent Pastor, Theologian and eventually a martyr. He was in the German resistance and was hanged by the Gestapo in April of 1945. We have seen people in our own age who have stood up and said, "This far no further". Martin Luther King Jr. faced impossible odds, but his faith allowed him to have a dream. Gandhi stood up to the entire British Empire with peaceful resistance. (It is said that  Gandhi read the "Sermon on the Mount" each day. When asked why he wasn't a Christian, he replied, "When I meet one, I'll become one." -- OUCH!)


My call to you this week is to realize, that yes, there is evil and suffering in the world but you can be part of the solution. The words Jesus spoke were most likely preached to various groups of people. In Matthew it is called "The Sermon on the Mount". Luke has a very similar sermon that is commonly called, "The Sermon on the Plain". I have always been drawn to Luke's account because I find it more jagged - more to the point. Here are those words from Luke's Gospel:

"And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:

"Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

"Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.

"Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.

"Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

"But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

"Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.

"Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

"Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets"

(Luke 6:20-26 - ESV)

Peace

~Al

The Americanization of God the Commodity

I recently read two books that have had a profound impact on me. The first was I Knew Jesus Before He Was a Christian . . . and I Liked Him Better Then, by Rubel Shelly and the second, The Pastor, by Eugene Peterson. They were very different books, but at times carried the same message. The premise of Rubel's book is that over the past 1700 years or so the church has lost sight of its reason for existence. He begins with this quote:

"Religion has often suffered from

the tendency to become parochial,

self-indulgent, self seeking . . . . It has

often done more to canonize prejudices

than to wrestle for truth; to petrify the sacred

than to sanctify the secular"

- Abraham Heschel

The Church over the last 1,700 years has become many things. What started as a group, mainly marginalized and shunned by the rich and powerful, transformed in a few hundred years into a political power.

Paul wrote, "Brothers, think of when you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were noble by birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things -- and the things that are not -- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him." - I Corinthians 1:26-29 (NIV) 

I am not going to go into the atrocities that were acted out in the name of Jesus - I think we are familiar with those. What I would like to discuss or plead for the church to go back to its roots from the church of the First Century. I am a member of The Restoration Movement that started in the late 1700's. A number of ministers decided jettison all of the creeds, dogma and division and simply be Christians. Not Catholic, Baptist, Unitarian, Presbyterian Christians -- just Christians.

As the years have passed, America has become a country of consumers. We buy what we don't need, have to have the latest whatever and wanting everything "My Way". Take for example buying your middle or high school son or daughter cloths; you could go to Wal*Mart but they don't have the "right" jeans. Girls and now boys have eating disorders because they want to look like the models that advertise the things they want to buy.

It reminds me of what Paul says in Ephesians, "Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more." Ephesians 4:19 (NIV)

Now add into that equation Christianity in 2011. In the United States, the great consumers we are, God has become a commodity. Like Goldie Locks trying out the beds owned by the three bears - This one is too hard, this one too soft -- ahh, this one is just right. It isn't entirely our fault. The picture at the top of the page is the statue George Carlin, dressed as a Bishop, rolled out. It was the "New" friendly Jesus - thinking it may inspire people to go to church.Churches are now run like corporations complete with organizational charts, huge budgets, buildings costing millions of dollars and focus groups to see what gimmick will fill their pews. Mega-Churches compete with the other churches in their cities and even within their own denominations for the most charismatic, attractive, minister. Not to mention looking for the successful in their communities to get that budget met.

Long gone are the small clusters of people meeting in various homes sharing their stories, successes and failures in their walk with God. Let me be naive for a moment.

When a church assembles, it is filled with people, some are hot, some are cold and some are lukewarm. Everyone of them has a story. Everyone of them have different needs and hurts. Rubel mentions that maybe Alcoholics Anonymous may be a better model to follow that the focus group inspired gimmicks. People come together knowing they have failures in their past and present and for some the future. There is no judgment because they are all sinners in need of God's constant grace. A place where secrets are not kept to save us from shame, but rather calls for help are answered with loving acceptance.

"I know I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one"

Here are some verses that may help you get a glimpse of what the church was to be like. It wasn't a place to network, punch your Sunday ticket or sit in judgment on those who are not among you. See if these verses speak to you:

"A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this will all men know you are my disciples, if you love one another" John 13:34-35

"Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God" Romans 15:17

I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct [give advice to, counsel] one another" Romans 15:14

"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing" I Thessalonians 5:11

"Carry one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" Galatians 6:2

"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you" Ephesians 4:32

"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed." James 5:16

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." Hebrews 10:24

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins" I Peter 4:8

Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness

~Al