I'm Here for You--Philippians 1:21-26

For to me living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to remain in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire to depart and be with Christ for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy and faith, so that I may share abundantly in your boasting in Christ Jesus when I come to you again.

The life of an Apostle, for Paul, was a life of suffering. He's writing to the Philippians from the deprivation of prison. He mentions elsewhere his many hardships: countless floggings, stonings, shipwrecks, hunger, thirst, nakedness. It's clear that Paul needs to retain a life coach. Things don't seem to be going too well.

No wonder he ponders the options. If he dies in prison (which certainly eventually happened), then he will be joyfully with Christ. If he remains alive, he can more fully fulfill his mission as an Apostle but, no doubt, he will continue to suffer. What would be best? Interpreters have wondered whether Paul is just turning these ideas over in his head or if he actually is trying to decide to live or die.

A central them in this letter to the Philippians is joy. The word occurs over and over again. Paul makes the decision to continue in the flesh for the joy of encouraging and strengthening the Philippians in the faith. He has a purpose, a calling, a responsibility. And though he suffers, he finds that joy emerges even from the most painful places of his life, because he is needed.

When Fred Rogers received an Emmy for Lifetime Achievement in 1997, he said: "We've all had special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, 10 seconds to think about the people who have helped you be who your are? Those who have cared about you and wanted what was best for your life." After the silence, he said: "Whomever you've been thinking about, how pleased they must be to know the difference you feel they've made."

Who has encouraged you and shaped you into the person you've become? Is there a way you can express your gratitude to them? Who is with you now that you can nurture and encourage? May you find joy as you fulfill this purpose for your life.
 

Vacation Thoughts

I took some time off in August to go to California with my family. My oldest daughter, Ali, returned home in early August from spending a year in Chicago with Mission Year. It was good to be able to spend time with her again. Of course, riding in a minivan for 30 hours with a family of six in hot California is a pretty intensive way to re-integrate into the family, but all in all we had a great time connecting with each other as well as with extended family who live in California.

Tomorrow is the centennial worship service at Woodland Park Presbyterian Church where I serve as pastor. As I look forward to tomorrow, I find that I have plenty for which to be thankful--a church that has served faithfully for 100 years in north Seattle and a houseful of loving family who are all together again. God is good.

May you find peace this day and be aware of God's goodness to you.

Blog problems

I've been having some problems with the comments portion of my blog. I'm still trying to work these out. Hope to have the problems resolved soon. Meantime, please read Romans 8. Good for the soul.

Obedience is Difficult--Romans 7:15-25a

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate (vs. 15).

Monday morning I came to the church as usual but this time went straight to the sanctuary where the day before, in worship, I had encouraged the congregation to write on Post-It notes simple acts of obedience that they feel called to practice and place these on or in the baptismal font as a sign of their commitment to follow Christ. The scripture that day had been from Romans 6 where Paul proclaims that through baptism we are freed from sin and enslaved to God. A slave obeys the master. This seems offensive and anachronistic to us; we value individual freedom quite highly and are repulsed by the institution of slavery. Yet Paul was surrounded by it and found it to be an apt metaphor for the free life lived in the Spirit. Paradoxical, I know.

As I prayerfully read the notes, even the soggy one I fished out of the water, I was moved by the strong spiritual aspirations reflected in these commitments. We do want to align ourselves with God's work of shalom in the world. We do want to heed the call and be God's ministers of healing and reconciliation in a broken world. We want to be obedient.

But obedience is difficult. Paul knows that. He is not kidding himself or others with this talk of enslavement. Romans 7 attests to that. As you read this text, note the confusion and powerlessness expressed by Paul. Can you remember a time when you experienced the same thing? You know what you should do, but doing it is just so hard!

As you read this text, identify the good news amid this confusion and powerlessness. Put that on the biggest Post-It note you can find and please don't ever, ever forget it.

Pentecost--Acts 2

On this Pentecost Sunday we wait for the emergence of the Spirit to fill our lives and eliminate our problems. But God's Spirit doesn't work in that way. We are filled with God's Spirit and our problems just begin, because we see the world with new eyes and recognize fully that our attitudes and beliefs are not consonant with this new vision.

Maybe we read Galatians and learn from Paul that the Law (scripture) is a great schoolmaster but at some point we need to grow up and learn to live by the Spirit. For him that meant that Gentiles could come to Christ through faith with nothing more required. For us maybe that means that homosexuals have the same freedom. Our old formulas for who is in and who is out of God's favor gets turned on its head. We have to make adjustments.

Perhaps our first reaction to the news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed was to party in the streets with other Americans, but somewhere deep inside there is this gnawing sense that we are simply continuing the cycle of violence and not really making our world a safer place. This thought certainly makes us feel out of place amid the celebration and self-congratulations, and we're afraid to say any such thing at the water cooler.

Yes, one can get all kinds of strange ideas when one gets filled with the Spirit. It can complicate one's life.

Has the fire touched you yet? Are you willing to be touched?

Let God Rise Up!, Psalm 68

Let God rise up, let his enemies be scattered;
Let those who hate him flee before him...
Sing to God, sing praises to his name,
Lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds.
(vss. 1,4)

Today is Ascension Day! Aren't you excited? Are you planning anything special for the day?

Okay, so it doesn't get the same attention in the church calendar as Christmas or Easter, but still, the last glimpses of Jesus on earth (unless you believe he appears in tree bark or a piece of toast from time to time) is a pretty special occasion.

The lectionary couples Psalm 68 with the story of Jesus' ascension in Acts. Both scriptures invite us to look up. Both scriptures invite us to imagine a God who is in control of all creation, who is set against all that wars with shalom and who will ultimately bring full shalom into being.

Life can get pretty horizontal. It's a good idea to lift your eyes toward the heavens with joy and hope, even if you have to tolerate a little rain in your face. Researchers tell us that one's environment impacts how one thinks and behaves. For instance, people who are asked to function in a room with high ceilings demonstrate a greater capacity for imaginative, creative work. Maybe that's why churches, traditionally, have developed spaces with arched ceilings. Makes it easier to catch a glimpse of that rider in the clouds. Maybe we ought to be meeting outside more often!

What aspects of your life have become way too horizontal? What ways can you orient your attention upward? If the Psalms are any indication, praise and prayer are a good place to start.

A New Temple--1 Peter 2:2-10

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

If you are reading this then Harold Camping, the odd biblical calculator who predicted the Rapture for May 21, either got his end time calculations wrong or you got left behind. Unless you noticed a much shorter, more grumpy, line at Starbucks this morning, it is probably the former. Not to worry. I'm sure Harold will be quick to point out where his calculations were off and issue another date for the Rapture. It's tricky work predicting the apocalypse. One can't expect infallibility.

It's not end time predictions that have bugged me about Camping. When I've seen him on TV, I've found those kind of amusing. Rather, it is his encouragement to Christians to leave their churches. It seems his primary proclamation is that the Church is corrupt, and that good Christians should leave it. Stands to reason I'd be offended by this since I'm a pastor.

His message makes no sense in light of 1 Peter 2:2-10, where the Christian community of believers--the church--is said to be the new temple (the Jerusalem temple had been destroyed by the Romans), which is built on Christ the cornerstone and is home to the very presence of God. Now, I'm quite aware that the Church is not perfect, but it still in some mysterious sense houses the presence of God.

When in your community of faith do you most sense God's presence? In worship? In serving the homeless a meal? Playing frisbee at a church picnic?

How would your church change if it really, really understood itself to be God's temple on earth?