Lent Midweek Series, Week Five

Before Holy Week starts tomorrow, I figure I should post the final of the five Lent Midweek reflections that I wrote. If you want more information about what this series was all about, take a look at the first post in the series.

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The song for the final week was my favorite, and was the genesis of this series, Sorrow words and music by Greg Gaffin).

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When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

     - John 11:17-27 

***

Sorrow. This song speaks some to the reality that we all live with … namely, the reality that every person at some point in life has to deal with sorrow, and suffering, and misery - and the truth that at times each one of us feels like we’ve been trampled down.

Did you ever do that thought exercise? Maybe in college philosophy class, or maybe in high school civics, or maybe just sitting around late at night with friends - the thought exercise that involves dreaming about how the world could be perfect, or at least much better than it is now.

What’d you come up with? Personal accountability? Stronger churches? Better access to natural foods? More cohesive neighborhoods? More support from other people? More individual responsibility? People being nicer to each other?

I don’t have the definitive foolproof answer to how we make the world a better place. You don’t either. Some people think they do, though. I wonder if that isn’t the purpose of politics. Do politicians, at least the best ones, get into that field because they believe that if their opinions were implemented as public policy, then the world would be a better and more perfect place?

Honestly, I hope so - in fact, I hope that’s why each of us does the work that we do, so that the world could be a better and more perfect place.

The unfortunate truth, though, is that despite all our thought experiments and all our politics and all our opinions, we won’t be able to make the world a perfect place … because (as you know) we all sin and fall short of the Glory of God.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with trying. Perhaps if every living soul was upright and strong, our world would be much better. Maybe if we no longer trampled one another down, or if all of the soldiers in all of the armies simply refused to kill each other any more, then we would enjoy a greater degree of happiness, a greater degree of joy.

So I say, let’s give it a try.

Because even though we all know it will fail, it’s worth trying. And maybe, just maybe, our world will end up just a little better for the trying.

But in the end, we’ll never rid the world of sorrow. You know this, because you live in the world and recognize that it’s broken and sinful - and the only way the sorrow that permeates the world will dissipate, as the song notes, is when the only true Messiah rescues us from ourselves.

Which, as Martha hears, is where we meet Christ - who is the Resurrection and the Life, the Messiah who rescues us from ourselves.

Lent Midweek Series, Week Four

Last night was the fifth and final of this year's Lenten midweek series - where I sing a song that may well belong more on the radio than in church, and where I publish a link to the original artist performing the song plus a reflection for people to read. If you want more background, see this post.

However, since I've only published three so far on this blog, here's the fourth. I'll get around to putting the other one up in a day or two.

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The song for Week Four (March 14) was Someone To You (Words and Music by Michael Nelson, Sam Hollander, and Grant Michaels)

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[Jesus said] "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

     - John 10:11-18

***

One of our deepest longings, as human beings, is the longing for a place to belong. No matter who we are, we tend to want to find a place where we can belong; a place where we can know other people, and where we can be known by those we care about.

Middle school lunchrooms are the quintessential and stereotypical place where we see that longing to belong embodied. The popular kids at one table, the nerds at the table across the room, the theater cast and the football team and the marching band each with their own places. Then there’s that one kid, either the new kid or the one no one likes, sitting all alone.

We might roll our eyes at or make fun of any one of the groups, but I don’t think we tend to feel sorry for them - because each person in each group has a place to belong. The kid who’s alone, though, we do feel sorry for, because each one of us knows what it feels like to feel alone. Whether we have any legitimate reason to have ever felt like that, we know what it is to feel alone - and we know it’s a pretty terrible feeling.

So we can all relate to the yearning expressed in this song. Yeah, it’s a love song - a song of longing on the part of one person to know and be known by another person, which seems to be at the center of our being.

But it could also be sung by someone who simply longs for community, even if it is in the midst of a middle school lunchroom.

And it could be sung by someone who joins a gang because they were ignored by their parents growing up.

Or even by someone who has a great job, but doesn’t really like their coworkers and doesn’t have any friends … so goes to work in the morning, goes home in the evening, makes lots of money, and never really talks with anyone else.

Those of you who are old enough may remember the television show Cheers. If you do, you’ll remember that there was a cast of regulars, each of whom had their designated place to be - either at the bar, behind the bar, or moving between the bar and the tables at the edge of the show.

One beautiful thing about that show is that ever single person was accepted as they were. It’s not as if each of them didn’t have any faults - they certainly did, just like we do. But their faults didn’t keep them from having a place to belong. And the theme song, Where Everybody Knows Your Name, speaks to this longing (and was embodied in the show to the extent that whenever that one character walked in the door, everyone called out, “Norm”).

This is what we might find in the very best of Christian community - a place where we can be known, where we can be called by name, and where we are accepted as we are. We find this in the best of Christian community, because the best of Christian community mirrors God’s relationship with us. Because the Good Shepherd knows us, calls us by name, and accepts us exactly as we are.

Lent Midweek Series Week Three

And here's the third of this year's Lenten midweek series - where I sing a song that may well belong more on the radio than in church. And where I publish a link to the original artist performing the song plus a reflection for people to read. If you want more background, see this post.

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The song for Week Three (March 7) was Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel (Lyrics & Music by Paul Simon)

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[Jesus said] "Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

     - John 10:1-10

***

It doesn’t take much time living in the world to begin to recognize that the world in which we live is sometimes dangerous. Toddlers, for instance, as they’re learning to move from crawling to walking, often figure out the hard way that there are tables above their heads. Elementary school children sometimes like to climb and swing and spin around really fast on the playground - they like to learn to ride bicycles or skis or skateboards … only to discover that gravity might not always be super friendly. Teenagers who are learning what romantic love feels like discover that sometimes the feeling isn’t mutual. And for the rest of us … taxes.

The world in which we live is sometimes dangerous, or painful, or fraught with trouble that we have to navigate.

One of the yearnings of many of us is reflected in this song. It’s obviously a love song, at least a love song of sorts. It’s a song that speaks to that desire most of us have to be connected in a deep and meaningful way to someone else, or to a community.

It’s a song of reassurance, a reminder that while there might be perils or pain that we have to navigate in this life, the lucky among us don’t have to navigate those alone.

But there’s more to it than simply reassurance for one person. Because most of us long for someone to support us when we face troubles - for someone to provide for us some relief from the struggle, someone to act for us like a bridge which allows us to bypass the troubled water that we’d have to pass through otherwise.

At the same time, most of us long to be the one supporting someone else. This is how we express and experience love for one another. We commit to easing the struggle with the things that are hard in this life … we act for each other like a bridge that allows easier passage over troubled water.

And this even, perhaps obviously, extends beyond simply a relationship between two people. For instance, members of a community (like a church congregation) can provide the same support for each other. Think about the simple act of bringing a casserole to, for instance, a woman whose husband just died. A bridge over troubled water. Or folks who show up to sit at the bedside of someone who’s in the hospital so that their family can go home to get some familiar food and take a shower and sleep in their own bed. A bridge over troubled water. Or the cards and emails and phone calls that happen between members of a church community when one family looks distraught in worship, or hasn’t shown up to worship for a while. A bridge over troubled water.

But there’s more to it than simply reassurance for one person; there’s more to it than simply a community supporting each other. Because each of these is an expression of love. And, as you’re well aware, we only love each other because God first loves us.

I wonder if this is what it means to have life, and to have it in abundance … to experience the love of God in Christ Jesus through knowing the love of our neighbor.

Lent Midweek Series, Week Two

So, here's the second from this year's Lenten midweek series where I sing a song that belongs more on the radio than in church, and publish the lyrics to the song and a reflection for people to read. If you want more background, see this post.

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Week Two (February 28) the song I sang was What It's Like by Everlast
     * Fair Warning ... there's some potentially offensive language in this song

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Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” Then the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying on your own behalf; your testimony is not valid.” Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid because I know where I have come from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge by human standards; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is valid; for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is valid. I testify on my own behalf, and the Father who sent me testifies on my behalf.” Then they said to him, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” He spoke these words while he was teaching in the treasury of the temple, but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

     - John 8:12-20

***

Someone told me a long time ago that a person never knows what happens behind the door to someone else’s house. They can invite me over, I can spend time there, I can get to know one of more of the people pretty well - but, since I don’t live there, I can never actually know what goes on when only the people who live in that household are home. We don’t really ever know the full truth about someone else.

Here’s the thing. Consider your life. Consider all the parts of your life that are complicated, or complex. Consider how your family of origin influences the way you currently move through the world, how you currently exist within your own household. Consider that there’s a lot more going on in your own heart and head than what you share with most people. If there are other people in your household, consider that even though you might know them better than anyone else in the world does, you don’t actually know everything that goes on in their heart or their head.

No matter who you meet, who you know, or who you see on the street, the truth is that you don’t know everything about that person. You likely don’t know all of their current story, let alone their back story.

For instance, there are three characters in this song. You have no idea why the first guy is begging outside the liquor store. Maybe he’s mentally ill and isn’t capable of holding down a job or maintaining a home; maybe he had cancer and his insurance wasn’t adequate, so the chemo bankrupted him and he’s living on the street because he lost his apartment; maybe his parents kicked him out of the house after not ever teaching him any life skills, so he’s doing the only thing he knows how to do.

As Jesus reminds us, it’s not our place to judge. All the people around the woman caught in adultery judged her, but Jesus did not. Jesus treats her with love and respect.

What if we, too, treated every person we encounter with love and respect?

Every person we meet is struggling with something. Most people also find ways and things to celebrate. And most people are hopeful about something that they’re working on, or that they’re anticipating.

That’s probably true for you, and is probably true for the people around you, too.

Actually, if you’re in the Holy Love sanctuary during Lent, 2018, take a look at the East wall. Strung across the top of the wall is a green cord. Hanging from the green cord are knotted cords in orange and blue/green and black. The knot represent things which people at Holy Love are praying for or about - orange for celebrations, blue/green for hope, black for sorrow. You don’t know what most of those are about, but you can see that there are a lot of knots.

Those knots not only represent prayers - in many ways they represent people’s lives.

So, perhaps this Lent, we fast from judgement - and take on as a Lenten practice the discipline of loving our neighbor. Because, as we know, we love because God first loves us. To follow Jesus, the light of the world, is to pursue the love that Jesus embodies.

Because the love of God in Christ Jesus does indeed call us beyond ourselves to pay attention to, and to love, our neighbor. Surprisingly, it is in giving ourselves away that we receive fulfilment.

Lent Midweek Series, Week One

Yes, I'm aware that it's already the fourth week of Lent this year. But I told someone the other day about what I'm doing for midweek reflections with the good people of God at Holy Love, and they suggested that maybe I should post these online someplace. So ... I'll post them here. 

Usually during Lent, I pick a theme of some sort, and each week during midweek Evening Prayer service, I share a reflection on that theme. Some of those reflections are posted on this blog.

This year I break with traditional practice. Because of the juxtaposition of Ash Wednesday with Valentine's Day, and of Easter with April Fool's Day, I started thinking about unusual juxtapositions.

So this year, instead of writing a reflection that I read, I've chosen to sing a song each week during Evening Prayer - songs that are not traditionally church songs, thereby juxtaposing popular culture with church. I print the lyrics of the song on one side of a piece of paper, my reflection on the other side, and provide enough copies for each person to have one.

So on this blog, I'll tell you what song I sing, post a link to the original artist/band playing the song, the section of scripture that was read that night, and then my reflection.

I'll post reflections from the other weeks over the next few days, or whenever I get around to it.

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Week One (February 21) the song I sang was Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For by U2
         * Skip to about 2:10 in the video if you want to miss the conversation and just hear the song

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When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”

Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always. ”Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.”

    - John 6:25-40

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There’s a saying that floats around. It goes something like, “Each one of us is searching for something that will fill the God-shaped hole in our soul.”

While there’s nothing in scripture to support the concept of a God-shaped hole in our soul, this idea seems fairly popular. Because the thing is, it seems like each one of is looking for something, searching for something, something to will take up whatever space might feel empty in our life - whatever space might feel like it needs to be filled.

That saying may be based on something from 17^th century thinker Blaise Pascal. In his posthumously-published book Pensées, Pascal wrote,

What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.

Centuries prior, in the Confessions, Augustine wrote, “You have made us for Yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You.”, which for some people speaks to the same yearning for something to fill what feels like a void somewhere in our individual life.

And this sentiment - that something is missing from our life, that we long for something we can’t find, that we yearn for but most often don’t reach fulfilment - isn’t just restricted to Christian apologists or theologians. The rock band U2, as you can see on the other side of this page, sang about the same yearning - looking for but not finding that which is fulfilling.

I don’t know whether there’s a God-shaped hole in our soul, or whether there’s an abyss in each of us that can only be filled with God.

I do know, though, that many of us resonate with the lyrics of this U2 song because many of us find that all of the things we search for, that we hope will satisfy the longing we feel at our center, tend to leave us feeling empty. Maybe not immediately, but eventually.

They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty …”

It’s only in God, revealed in Jesus Christ, that we have any hope of having whatever void we feel in our being filled. And, like the song points out by omission, that abyss will never be filled when we focus only on ourselves. To turn our focus to our self, says Martin Luther, is the beginning of all sin.

Instead, the love of God in Christ Jesus calls us beyond ourselves to pay attention to, and to love, our neighbor. Surprisingly, it is in giving ourselves away that we receive fulfillment.

Some Thoughts on Ferguson

The decision announced last night to not indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Mr. Michael Brown is no longer only about this one incident, if it ever even was. This incident has become, and is, about the state of race relations in this country that so many of us love.

At the congregation I serve as pastor, we've begun working in earnest to equip folks with the tools to intentionally share their faith with younger generations. We recognize that, as much as church leaders might want to be incharge of everything having to do with faith, parents have a much greater influence on their children than anyone else ever will.

Parents, or more specifically the adults with whom children spend the most time, are the ones who (intentionally or accidentally) share their worldview with young people. Kids learn how the world works from their parents.

I move through every day assuming that I'll be safe, that I'll be able to get what I need at almost any time, and that I'll have access to someone who has the power and authority to change what needs to be changed in order to make my personal situation the way it should be. That's how my parents taught me to move through the world

What do you assume about the world? If you're white, and especially if you're straight and male, you very well may make similar assumptions to mine.

If you grew up in this country black, or Latino/a, or Asian, or Native, or with any skin color darker than (northern) European, you almost certainly learned something different about how the world works.

See, we learn about the world from our ancestors. I grew up trusting authorities, at least in part because my ancestors had essentially been treated fairly by the culture in which we live.

Most people who grew up in this country with darker skin than mine grew up with decades or centuries of history of being treated unfairly. That deeply-embedded family history cannot be turned around simply because the voting laws changed 50 years ago. It takes generations of everything being different before culture even begins to truly be any different.

From a priviliged white perspective, this is what Ferguson is about. Folks are looking around, seeing that what we have is broken, and demanding that things change.

I'm not a legal expert, so I can't offer an opinion about whether Officer Darren Wilson ought to be indicted.

I do know that Mr. Michael Brown was killed without an indictment or a trial or a sentencing.

Which leads me to believe that our system, our culture, our world needs to be indicted, put on trial, and (most importantly) rehabilitated.

And the place to start, perhaps, would be to start trusting one another - specifically, for white people to start trusting that when people of color talk about how they experience life in our society, they're telling the truth.

$0.02

Royalty

Royalty

* Royalty: an internationally-connected, and often wealthy, group of people who stewards a nation and provides for the large-scale needs of all of the people.

* Peasantry: a locally-connected, and often not wealthy, group of people who steawards the local land and landscape, and who provide for the small-scale needs of all of the people.

* Definitions you see above: idealistic visions of royalty and peasantry, which probably have never been and will never be realized in the actual world.


***

It doesn't usually work like this. And so royalty is baffling to me, a person who's never lived in a society with any collective experience of royalty. I don't understand the English fascination with royalty.

The other day, we visited a palace. The beauty and impressive grandeur of the place were inescapable. I was impressed.

But just below the surface and equally inescapable to our perception, was a very uncomfortable class system that made itself evident in our experience of the palace - that gave me the feeling of being used by the aristocracy for their own gain at my expense.

What I expected was a tour of the palace and an opportunity to see how a palace might have functioned in the past. That's what we got at the other historical places we've visited on this trip - why wouldn't we expect the same?

I would have loved some kind of compare-and-contrast presentation - maybe a look at the staterooms and the kitchen as they functioned in 1800; maybe an articuilation of the differences between the bedrooms used by a dutchess and her maid's chambers; maybe an explanation of the differences between the life of a 10-year-old son of the duke and the 10-year-old son of the footman.

What we got, though, was a walk thorugh a few staterooms and an un-engaging history of the palace, while most of the palace was private residence and therefore off-limits to the public. Of course, I also got the feeling that my money is being used to prop us a system that benefits very few and has virtually no place in today's world.

Of course, I'm willing to stipulate that there may still be a place in the world for royalty. For that to be the case, though, the whole system would necessarily have to be restructured - everything would have to start from scratch in order to get anywhere close to the ideal.

Of course, one could make similar criticisms of the church.

$0.02

Youth Gathering Culture

Any time I go to a new city, I try to pay attention to the ethos of the place. Each city has a different character, and (since I don't like to appear to be a tourist) I try to fit in as well as possible. I'm fully confident that I regularly fail; nonetheless, I try to pay attention and make myself belong.

I've arrived last night in New Orleans for a part of the ELCA Youth Gathering. I've been to these events before, but always as a leader with a group of students. This is the first time I've been completely free to be an observer.

Most of the time, a convention doesn't change the character of a city. Smaller conventions might meet in smaller cities, where they'll be noticed … but life will continue in that place with relatively little interruption. And when smaller conventions are in bigger cities, there's even less impact. When bigger conventions happen, the city might notice (especially if there's something particularly unusual about the convention-goers … think Star Trek conventions); but even if the city notices, there's not a huge amount of impact.

However, most conventions don't attract over 30,000 participants. And this event, the ELCA Youth Gathering, might be the only regularly-held event that brings in 20,000 high school students into the same place. So it's notable in that regard.

But it's also notable from another perspective. As much as I might try to blend in to the culture of the city, that's impossible to do as part of this gathering. See, the culture of the city has been transformed simply by the presence of so many young people walking around its streets.

And beyond that, the Youth Gathering has its own culture, which gets superimposed onto the city where the event is happening. For instance, in most cities you go to, people don't walk down the street greeting strangers; people don't give gifts to each other, or receive gifts from each other, on a whim. Youth gathering culture says that it's ok to give and receive gifts, to talk with complete strangers as if you've known each other for years, and to ask for hugs from people you've never met before.

It's fascinating to me to see the relative anonymity of an urban center temporarily pushed aside by the anonymous familiarity of a youth gathering.

It has to be empowering for high school students, even if they don't recognize it, to have such an impact on a city. I'm sure it must give them a sense of agency that allows them to break out, even just a little bit, from the mold in which they find themselves. Whether the mold in which they find themselves is 'geeky-chess-club-member' or 'cheerleader,' 'valedictorian' or 'drop-out,' 'music nerd' or 'popular jock,' or any of the myriad others that students find and create to categorize one another, this kind of gathering gives them a chance (even if they don't experience any different in the context of their own youth group) to experience that box cracking open some.

For the impact that gatherings like this have on the cities in which they're held, I give thanks to G-d. And for the impact that gatherings like this have on the lives of young people, not as much today as five and ten and twenty and forty years in the future, I give thanks to G-d.

$0.02

Church Conference

I spent the day today at the “You Lost Me – Live” seminar/conference/panel conversation today, which was sponsored by the Barna Group. Much of the day was given to talking about cultural differences between generations. In particular, the conversation revolved around the truth that the mosaic (millenial) generation is coming of age in a world that is ridiculously different culturally from the world Gen Xers, or Boomers, or any previous generation has emerged into.

That part of the conference was good, and applicable across different Christian traditions. However, the other thing I noticed is the cultural differences there are between Evangelical Christianity (in which, it seemed, most of the attendees today are rooted) and Mainline Christianity. There was a great deal of in-group language that I didn't identify with.

To be fair, if any one of the folks who was there today were to come to a Lutheran, or a Mainline, conference, they'd have the same experience as I did today. I imagine they'd hear a lot of in-group language and assumptions, and they'd feel just a little bit on the outside at the same time that I would be perfectly comfortable.

I wonder if we, as church leaders, ought to make a more concerted effort to talk with each other more often. It couldn't hurt to understand our neighbor a little better, could it?

$0.02

Bishop's Election, Part Six

One of my seven readers posed a question the other day that I hadn't thought much about. She shared with me that when she was younger, she had served on the synod council as the token youth representative.

Then she wondered aloud, maybe since I've been writing about the obvious changes our society has experienced, whether the synodical structure didn't also need to change.

Does it still make sense for a synod to be staffed by: a bishop, one or more assistants to the bishop, and office staff? Does it still make sense for a synod to be governed (between assemblies) by a synodical council?

It might. It might not. But since our world is vastly different from when our current bishop first took office eighteen years ago (think internet), I got to pondering what a synod structure ought to look like, starting at the top.

Bishop

Should there be a bishop? Because of our constitution, having a bishop is necessary. But beyond that, I believe a bishop serves as the synodical minister of Word and Sacrament. In addition, I believe that a bishop can serve a valuable role as a public prophetic face of ministry in ways that congregational pastors are not always able to do.

One could argue that bishops are not necessary, since those roles can be filled in other ways ~ and those arguments are valid. However, one could argue that pastors are not necessary (and some denominations do). This, though, is not our polity, since we believe that some are gifted by G-d particularly for this work on behalf of the people of G-d.

Assistants to the Bishop

Should the bishop continue to have a staff? Probably. There is a great deal of coordination with and between congregations that has been facilitated by synodical staff. I believe this work is important. In fact, I believe more of this coordination is necessary.

What if the primary role of a synod staff would be to make connections, and then get out of the way? Since congregations are the places where most ministry actually happens, what if the synod staff worked to facilitate connections where they would be appropriate and helpful to ministry?

For instance, what if if there's a congregation doing great work teaching children to play guitar. And what if there's congregation on the other side of town thinking about helping the local elementary school, which has just been forced by the budget cut their music program. The congregations don't have any natural reason to pay attention much to each other ~ but if the synod staff did, then all of a sudden there's the potential for a connection and a sharing of best practices. Ministry is enhanced.

Plus, for the congregations in conflict. Surely there's another pastor who's gone through similar struggles. Surely there's a former congregational president who's waded through that muck and come out healthy. What if the synod staff connects the ones who struggled formerly with the ones struggling currently ~ not to shame, not to dictate, but to share best practices and as a reminder that the struggling congregation is not alone.

I think that, probably, the bishop should still have a staff ~ and that their primary goal should be to make connections between individuals, congregations, seminaries, and other entities in the church … and then get out of the way.

Synod Council

Constitutionally we're stuck with a synod council. Some may think the synod council is unnecessary, since at times (at least in my perception) it seems rather ineffectual. It may be the case that the council is not communicating the work they do very thoroughly. That's easy to remedy.

Or, it may be true that the synod council needs to be re-structured. It seems to me pretty big, and I wonder if it's unwieldy. Right now, each different geographical part of the synod is constitutionally required to be represented on the council all the time.

I wonder if it would make sense to streamline the council. Pare the membership from 24 members down to 10 or 12 (including officers). I wonder if it would make sense for the primary purpose of the synod council to be visioning for the present and future of the synod. And I wonder if the synod council ought to meet more often than three times per year. (Obviously, these meetings wouldn't necessarily have to be in person … there are amazing tools for online and video-conference meetings available today.)

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I may not have fully addressed my one reader's questions, but this is a first stab at wondering whether the synodical structure that's been in place since (at least) 1988 is still appropriate 24 years later.

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Bishop's Election, Part Five

As my seven readers may know, we in the Rocky Mountain Synod of the ELCA are getting closer to the election of a new bishop. You who have been reading along know that I have some opinions about our next bishop.

You should also understand that I recognize the truth that most of my posts in anticipation of the election of the new RMS bishop have been negative ~ namely, I've complained about the way things shouldn't be more than I've offered suggestions which might lead to improvement.

Keith Anderson has written a very helpful piece in which he articulates five qualities he believes are important in a new bishop. Since he's written so well about qualities that any current bishop ought to embody, I'll not worry about the more general.

I'm especially concerned about the election of a bishop to this particular synod. In particular, what qualities and assets would be desirable for our bishop, given the peculiarities of the Rocky Mountain Synod?

1) We are an especially large synod. I often hear people refer to the geographic size of the synod as a problem to overcome. I would hope a bishop would actively help synod leadership to understand our vastness as an asset instead of a liability.

We who are called to ministry in the geographic area are bound together, in spite of our diversity, by the accident of bureaucratic proximity. However, instead of seeing this diversity as a liability, let's start to see the unique gifts our diversity brings us as blessing.

2) We find ourselves in a unique and fascinating cultural location. It's an intersection where the traditional mid-western Lutheran culture meets post-modernity; where western individualism meets congregational communalism; where Native and Mexican and white and African and African-American and Asian cultures intermingle (with greater or lesser degrees of comfort); where cultural Christians and cultural atheists argue; where some people talk on phones that are attached to the wall, and some people use their phones for everything but talking.

I would hope a bishop is not so steeped in church that she or he would not be able to recognize these intersections; and then, I would hope a bishop would enter into, and lead the synod into, the midst of these intersections.

3) I hope that our new bishop is able to articulate a vision for synodical staff which moves us away from a centralized and business-corporate mindset.

Of course, a synod office which operates out of a church basement doesn't think highly enough of itself; at the same time, a synod office operating out of a professional office building projects the wrong image of who the church is in the world. We need a bishop who will not try to make the synod something it isn't, and will not apologize for who the church is.

These are a couple initial thoughts. I may have more as we approach nearer to the election.

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Bluegrass Culture and Church

I want to express my gratitude to Sierra Hull. This weekend, I was at the Mid-Winter Bluegrass MusicFestival, and was able to be toward the front of the audience when she and Highway 111 took the stage. Certainly, I appreciated her virtuosic mandolin playing, and the technical prowess and artistic creativity each of the musicians brought to the show.

More than that, though, I appreciated this one action she took in her show. In the middle of the show, Sierra Hull paused and invited a young mandolin player onto the stage to play a fiddle tune with the band.

I appreciated the fact that she took some of her stage time to give to a young player who wasn't on the billing. The thing is, though, that this is part of bluegrass tradition and culture.

Ricky Skaggs, who first started playing mandolin at age five, was able at age six to play onstage by Bill Monroe. Further, Sierra Hull herself got to play with Allison Krauss & Union Station when she was 11 or 12 years old.

It's part of the bluegrass tradition and culture for the stars to recognize budding talent and give young players a shot at a wider audience, some notoriety, and therefore a better shot at a future in music.

It also seems to be part of bluegrass tradition and culture that (whenever a group's not rehearsing or performing) anyone is welcome to grab their instrument and start playing. And the thing is, whether a person is virtuosic or mediocre or just beginning, for the most part people are very supportive of others' playing.

There's a culture of support and encouragement which (I think) goes back decades in bluegrass, and centuries in roots music. This culture continues to be perpetuated today – at least in part, I imagine, because the great players now were supported and encouraged when they were young.

I wonder what church would be like if we fostered this kind of culture ~ the kind of culture where young people and newcomers to the faith are actively nurtured and supported by those who've been around longer.

In that culture, conversations would be more important than committees; relationships would take precedence over stains in the carpet; faith would be more important than finance; and worship of the living G-d, with the whole community, would be primary.

Would it be enough for us to just decide these things are already true, and then act like they are?

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Bishop's Election, Part Four

The Rocky Mountain Synod of the ELCA is not the only synod electing a new bishop this year. I've been lurking a little bit on Facebook timelines, watching what folks in other synods are saying about their own election process.

After perusing Keith Anderson's this morning, I started to think about how we talk with one another about the work of the church, particularly as we anticipate changes in synodical leadership.

Here's what I came up with:

One issue we run in to is the fact that the Bishop of our synod has been re-elected at least twice, and has been in office for over eighteen years.

It's much more likely, when a sitting bishop is available, that she or he will be re-elected. Unless there are huge problems with current leadership, my experience is that folks assume things will remain the same. When we believe things will stay the same, we don't tend to have serious conversations about what needs to change.

This year, though, we in our synod have the opportunity to take our changing culture and society seriously. This year, we have the opportunity to elect a bishop who recognizes that the world is different than it was 18 years ago.

Business as usual circa 1993 is not appropriate for the church of 2012.

It's time in our synod to talk about what needs to change in the synodical leadership … and we probably need to talk seriously about what needs to change in the (especially mainline) church at large as well.

But when we have those conversations, they tend to be reduced to language that sounds good but doesn't really mean anything. We talk about mission and ministry without defining those terms. We say we want to develop bold leaders and courageous congregations without articulating what that means.

We wonder what G-d is up to out in the world, but we fight about what happens inside the church while we tend to ignore the world around us.

We talk about transforming the culture around us, but don't understand the culture well enough to know what kind of transformation the culture is yearning for. What we need is a conversation that moves deeper than generalized language that makes us feel good, but doesn't really mean anything.

What we need is a bishop who is bold enough to consider the truth that church culture needs its own transformation.

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Bishop Election, Part Two

As I mention here, our synod will be electing a new bishop in a couple months. So far, over 60 people were potentially nominated. Of those, seventeen potential candidates have not withdrawn their names from potential nomination.  (I say potential, because nothing official can happen until the April assembly.)

The next step in this potential process is for the remaining potential candidates to submit biographical information and their ideas about the office of bishop.

Those were published earlier this week, and I've taken a little time to glance at what these folks have written. I have to admit, I'm disappointed in what I see.

Of course I'll have to make a closer reading before too long, but the vision I see articulated by most of these potential candidates is a continuation of the status quo. “Let's do what we've been doing, let's just do it better.” And anything beyond what's always been is wrapped in church bureaucratic jargonistic language that doesn't really mean anything.

The world is shifting and changing all around us, and the church seems to be mired in a thought process that was successful at one point in history, but no longer makes sense.

Before you, my seven readers, throw up your hands in frustration, please understand that I'm not advocating that we eschew the essentials of our faith. Word and Sacrament should continue to remain at the center of who we are. Our Lutheran perspective on Christian theology is indispensable to the future of the church. The rest, though, should be up for negotiation.

See, if we don't begin to recognize that the world is changing, we'll remain stuck in the cultural trappings of the past.

What I don't see is any one of the potential bishop candidates voicing an articulate alternative to business as usual. Further, I don't hear any one of the potential bishop nominees talking about their actual shortcomings.

What we need, in my opinion, is a bishop who is solidly rooted and grounded in the essentials of our faith. What we need, in my opinion, is a bishop who is humble enough to recognize their own shortcomings, and who is willing to build a staff to fill those gaps.

What we need, in my opinion, is a bishop who recognizes the reality that the world is shifting and changing all around us, and who is willing to push the church into the future ~ not simply for the sake of change, but because the roots and foundation of our faith has an important Word to speak into the changing world.

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